HYDERABAD: In a major relief to Telangana, the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-2 on Wednesday dismissed the Interlocutory Application (IA) filed by the Andhra Pradesh government against the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS).
The Tribunal said that it has no jurisdiction to hear the petition.
The AP government filed the IA on December 28 last year with a request to restrain Telangana from utilising 90 tmcft of Krishna river waters for PRLIS.
Tribunal chairman Justice Brijesh Kumar and members Justice Ram Mohan Reddy and Justice S Talapatra pronounced the verdict today.
"... A water dispute Tribunal cannot by itself entertain any dispute which would not be the subject matter of the reference to it. For the reasons given and the discussion held in this order, we find that this Tribunal does not have jurisdiction to entertain the application moved for grant of interim relief. The applicant, however, would be free to approach any other forum for the relief as may be permissible under the law. In the result the application IA No. 13 of 2022 is rejected", the Tribunal stated in its verdict.
Senior counsel CS Vaidyanathan, advocate on record Nikhil Swamy, advocate Harish Vaidyanatahan and other lawyers and Superintending Engineer R Koteshwar Rao, Executive Engineer S Vijaya Kumar and Deputy Executive Engineer N Ravi Shankar appeared in the proceedings on behalf of Telangana.
Senior counsel Umapathi, Srinivas and other lawyers and Senior Engineers Srinivas and Ravikumar and others appeared on behalf of Andhra Pradesh.