NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court had some harsh words on Tuesday for the Central Government over the Vamsadhara row between Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, thanks to the Centre’s inability to constitute a tribunal to resolve the dispute.A three-judge Bench comprising Justice Altamas Kabir, Justice S S Nijjar and Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra asked the counsel appearing for the Centre as to when the Central Government would wake up from its deep slumber. The Bench repeatedly asked the reasons for violating its orders on setting up of the tribunal to resolve the inter-state water dispute between the two states.The Bench expressed its anguish at this violation of its orders with impunity by the Central Government. “This is not befitting its stature,” the Bench said. “You are deliberately violating compliance of our orders with impunity. When will you wake up from your deep slumber?What do you need to wake you up? We have been repeatedly passing orders. What is the point in merely filing affidavits and replies. This is not expected from the Union of India,” the Bench said. This rare outpouring came during the course of the hearing on yet another application moved by Andhra Pradesh accusing the Centre of violating court’s directions for setting up of the Vamsadhara Water Disputes Tribunal (VWDT).Senior counsel C S Vaidyanathan appearing for the state told the Bench that despite two orders had passed - one on November 2010 and the other on April 24, 2010- the Centre failed to take any steps to provide infrastructure like accommodation to the Chairman of the tribunal. It also said that two members to the tribunal were not nominated yet. Office space for the tribunal as also not earmarked, he pointed out.The Bench became so unhappy at this submission that it lost its cool and blasted the counsel appearing for the Centre, Wasim Quadri.Utilising the mood of the Bench, Vaidyanathan went hammer and tongs and said that former judge of the apex court Justice B N Agrawal who was nominated by the Centre to the tribunal quit irked at lack of infrastructure. He was not even given residential accommodation, the senior counsel pointed out. The apex court had on February 6, 2009 directed the Centre to constitute within six months a tribunal. But, the notification in this regard was issued only on February 24, 2010. But till now, despite its constitution, no office space or any other infrastructure have been provided to the tribunal making it non-functional, he emphasised.
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