New Delhi, March 5
The Haryana government today got a firm assurance from the Supreme Court about taking up the four-point Presidential reference on the constitutional validity of the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act, terminating all water accords from 1981 onwards with neighbouring states.

The assurance was given to former attorney-general Ashok Desai, appearing for Haryana, by a Bench presided by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan when he made a strong plea for early hearing of the case.

Desai while making a special mention for early hearing said since an important question of law whether a state legislature could override the judgement of the Supreme Court was involved in the Presidential reference, it needed to be decided early.

The reference made by former President A.P.J Abdul Kalam is pending before the court since 2004.

The reference was made soon after the passage of the Punjab Termination of Agreement (PTA) Act on July 12, 2004, by the Congress government headed by Capt Amarinder Singh from the state assembly.

The Act was passed by Punjab after the Supreme Court had ordered the Centre to construct the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal in its judgement in 2004.

Since the action of his own party government in Punjab “arbitrarily” terminating all water agreements with neighbouring states had created an embarrassing situation for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he had recommended a reference to the Supreme Court by the President. The apex court has already referred the matter to a Constitution Bench.