ORDER

Water is a gift of nature. Human hand cannot be permitted to convert this bounty into a curse, an opperrion. The primary use ot which the water is put being drinking, it would be mocking the nature to force the people who live on the bank of a rive to remain thirsty, whereas others incidentlly placed in an advantageous position are allowed to use the water for non-drinking purposes. A river has to flow through some territory ; and it would be travesty of justice if the upper-riparian States were to use its water for purposes like irrigation, denying the lower riparian States the riparian States the benefit of using the water even for quenching the thirst of its residents.

2. The plight of residents of Delhi in not getting sufficient water even for drinking, led Commodore S.D. Sinha to approach this Court under Article 32 of the Constitution by filing a public interest petition, which came to be registered as Writ Petition (C) No. 537 of 1992 seeking, inter alia, a direction to the concerned Governments to maintain regular flow of water, in Jamuna river so that the residents of Delhi do not face problem of drinking water, which, however, was being so faced because of non-release