New Delhi: In a stinging criticism of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh in the Sutlej Yamuna Link canal case, the Supreme Court has remarked the Chief Minister and officials instead of obeying the Court directive "arrogated themselves the power of sitting as a super-judicial body over this Court".

The Court, while rejecting the Punjab Government's plea for review of its January 15, 2002 directive to complete the SYL canal within a year, had on Friday asked the Centre to take up the construction work in Punjab portion of the canal.

A Bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal and Justice P V Reddi said "Punjab was required to complete the canal by January 15, 2003 by the decree. Instead of accepting the decree in good grace, every possible step has been taken to thwart the decree."

Recounting the manner in which the Punjab Government delayed the implementation of the Court decree passed in favour of Haryana, the Bench said "the correspondence and the record of minutes show that the Chief Minister as well as the Government officials named in the correspondence have arrogated themselves the power of sitting as super-judicial body over this Court."