SC turns down plea seeking cancellation of Indus Water Treaty

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a PIL seeking cancellation of the Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan while observing that it has found no merit in the plea.

The plea has been filed by a Delhi-based lawyer M. L. Sharma, who has said that the treaty is unconstitutional.

"Not finding any merit in the PIL of Sharma. We do not want to interfere," an apex court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar said.

Sharma in his plea urged the top court for cancelling the treaty on the ground that it was not a valid document.

The treaty was signed on September 19, 1960, by India's first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan's President Ayub Khan.

However, Sharma says the treaty is invalid as it was signed by Nehru and Khan, adding that it should have been signed by the President of India.

The agreement covers six rivers - the three eastern rivers of Ravi, Beas, Sutlej and their tributaries and the three western rivers of Indus, Jhelum, Chenab and their tributaries.

Water from the eastern rivers has been allocated to India, and New Delhi is obligated to let 80 percent water from the western rivers flow to Pakistan.

The treaty gives the lower riparian Pakistan more 'than four times' the water available to India.