PANAJI
The Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the Goa government challenging the verdict of the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal is likely to come up for hearing before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, January 10.
The matter was supposed to be listed before Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice SVN Bhatti on December 6, 2023; however the same was not heard.
The SLP filed by the State government in July 2019 was last heard on July 10, last year, wherein the Apex Court admitted Goa’s plea challenging the Mhadei Tribunal’s award.
Goa’s SLP has challenged the decision of the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal (MWDT) to grant 13.42 tmc (thousand million cubic feet) of water to Karnataka for its Kalasa-Bhandura drinking water cum irrigation project.
On that day, the Court will hear a total five cases filed on Mhadei including those from Karnataka and Maharashtra challenging the award.
On the day of hearing now, the Goa Government will have to produce on record the order of the State Chief Wildlife Warden restraining Karnataka from undertaking any construction work of its proposed project without obtaining permission under Section 29 of the Wild Life Protection Act.
The Apex Court in its interim order, before, has restrained Karnataka from going ahead with any damming or construction work without obtaining all the necessary permissions.
