Formulate policy on groundwater, HC to state

Vijay Arora

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Shimla, October 24

Expressing concern on the issue of the state government granting permits for extracting groundwater through borewells, the HP High Court has directed it and the Himachal 

Pradesh Ground Water Authority to examine and re-visit the existing rules and regulations in this regard and take an appropriate policy decision before granting further permits.

While passing the directives, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ajay Mohan Goel observed that, “Groundwater is a precious asset. It cannot be allowed to be misused or used with luxury. There is an onerous duty of the Himachal Pradesh Ground Water Authority to ensure that every permission is conditional with an obligation such as rain harvesting to ensure that the groundwater level is not depleted. The extraction of water has to be permitted only when the authorities, through scientific process, are satisfied about the availability of water at the identified spots.”

The court further said, “The distribution of the extracted water is a major administrative issue. It involves the rights of the village community, gram panchayats, municipalities, private users and several other stakeholders. We are thus of the view that unless the Himachal Pradesh Ground Water Authority, in consultation with and approval of the state government, formulates a comprehensive policy for the entire state to save, regulate, recycle and harvest the groundwater level, it should be reluctant and refrain itself from issuing permits merely for the reason that the statute has conferred such power on it.”

The court further observed that, “We lay emphasis on the fact that the authority is the creation of the Himachal Pradesh Ground Water (Regulation and Control of Development and Management) 2005 Act and the legislative policy of the statute very emphatically casts an obligation as to how to regulate and control the development and management of groundwater. Time has come to take strict regulatory and reformatory measures to save groundwater even in such areas in the entire state that are not declared as notified areas as per the provisions of the Act.”

The court passed this judgment on a petition filed by residents of Kasauli alleging that the state authorities had granted permits to companies for extracting groundwater without taking into consideration the requirement of the local people.