Krishna river: SC's rejection of SLP by Telangana stops AP from pressing on

Hyderabad: The AP government filed a Special Leave Petition in Supreme Court on Monday, challenging the Justice Brijesh Kumar Tribunal verdict limiting fresh allotment of Krishna waters among the two Telugu-speaking states. However, coming to know about the dismissal of the SLP filed by TS, AP did not press for taking up the SLP.

Senior counsel A.K. Ganguly had filed the SLP in the afternoon but when he came to know that the Supreme Court bench headed by Justices M.B. Lokur and Prafulla C. Pant dismissed the SLP filed by TS on similar grounds, he preferred not to press for taking up the SLP.

According to officials in the inter-state disputes wing of AP irrigation department, they will not press for taking up the SLP even in the coming days.

“We will not do so indefinitely, there is no point in moving the SLP with the similar plea of quashing the Brijesh Tribunal verdict and risking facing the wrath of the Supreme Court,”  a senior official told DC on Wednesday.

However, the original petitions filed by the government of undivided AP in 2013, SLP and writ petitions by the TS government in 2014 and the SLP by the AP government in 2014 that are pending before Supreme Court will be contested in due course, the official said.

Meanwhile, in view of the refusal by Supreme Court to entertain fresh litigation on the issue, representatives of both TS and AP governments are now preparing their arguments for the Justice Brijesh Kumar Tribunal starting from January 23.

The Tribunal has allotted 1,004 tmc ft for undivided AP which will now have to be shared by TS and AP, as per a formula that will be decided by the Tribunal after the arguments conclude.