Governor's directives binding, state clarifies before HC

Stung by the controversy generated by state government's affidavit before the Bombay High Court over Governor's directives on allocation of funds, Maharashtra Advocate General Darius Khambata today clarified that these directions are indeed "binding" on the government.
In the earlier affidavit, the state had said Governor's directives on allocation of funds for developmental expenditure were advisory, and not binding.
This stand was taken upon a petition filed by 'Society for Backlog Removal and Development', challenging allocation of water from Upper Wardha river to a power project set up by Indiabulls subsidiary Sophia Power in Amravati district.
The stand created a furore in the Legislative Assembly.

The Advocate General today filed an additional affidavit before the division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice A V Mohta, seeking to clarify the "misrepresentation".
"The state government clarifies that the Honourable Governor's directive for allocation of funds for developmental expenditure under Article 371 (2) (b) will be binding on the government of Maharashtra to spend the funds so allocated," the new affidavit, signed by Eknath Patil, Principal Secretary, Water Resources, states.

The earlier affidavit had said:"Any reference to targets, deadlines or objectives of the physical work or elimination of physical backlog even if vouched as directives by the Governor is given the highest respect by the state government and will be adhered to if possible, but is not a binding directive."

Senior counsel Srihari Aney, for the petitioners, today contended that High Court's ruling in this case, delivered on March 2, upholding the state's decision to allocate water to Indiabulls, be recalled and the matter should be re-heard.
The bench rejected this plea.
In the March 2 order, HC had approved the allocation of 87.6 million cubic metres (MCM) of water to the private power plant and 200 MCM yearly allocation for the water-starved district.