SC refuses urgent hearing on PIL on Indus Water Treaty

The Supreme Court today refused to grant an urgent hearing on a PIL seeking declaration of the India-Pakistan Indus Water Treaty as unconstitutional.
"There is no urgency in the matter. It will come up for hearing in due course," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice A M Khanwilkar said.
Advocate M L Sharma, who filed the PIL in his personal capacity on the issue, sought urgent hearing of the matter saying the treaty was unconstitutional as it was not signed as per the constitutional scheme and hence should be declared "void ab initio".
(Reopens LGD5)
Sharma, in his PIL, referred to Article 77 of the Constitution and said it mandates that all executive action of the government shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President.

However in the case the 1960 Indus water treaty, it has been signed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and "nowhere it is declared that the said agreement/treaty has been signed in the name of the President of India".

"According to the ministry of external affairs documents, nowhere disclosed further that the said agreement has been signed by the Jawaharlal Nehru for the President of India...," it said.
"According to the impugned agreement 80 per cent water goes to Pakistan which is a serious injury to the fundamental right of the citizens of India coupled with further financial and natural injuries to the national interest," it said.

India has all the rights and power to use the water which come from six rivers -- Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum, as they flow through Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir before going into the Arabian Sea, south of Karachi.
The Indus water agreement, a tripartite treaty, was executed on September 19, 1960 between India, Pakistan and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the World Bank. Besides Nehru, Pakistan President Mohammad Ayub Khan and W A B Iliff for the World Bank were its signatories.
The plea has sought a direction declaring the Indus water treaty as "unconstitutional" and "illegal".

The treaty was "against the national interest and violated fundamental right of the citizen of India effecting their life and livelihood", it said.