Water is very crucial for all of us. In India, developing effective and equitable systems for sharing interstate river flows has long been a legal and constitutional challenge. These disputes pose a major challenge to the existing federal framework of the Constitution and hence we need to consider the issue of water of supreme importance.
The Indian Constitution limits the authority of courts and sometimes the function of Parliament and the Union government, as defined by the Constitution and laws, was deemed to be ineffective in resolving inter-state disputes. The constraints of courts and tribunals in exercising jurisdiction, as well as the capacity of the central government to decide on the implementation of tribunal awards, make this area of centre-state interactions extremely complicated.
The ability of states to use their legislative power to overturn tribunal or court decisions creates a constitutional concern because there is frequently a direct clash between state laws and tribunal orders. Article 262 of the Indian Constitution, as well as the provisions of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act, 1956, need to be reviewed and it is time that a new framework should be enacted to deal with the present-day problems of water sharing in India.
