New Delhi: The President today (July 22, 2004) referred to the Supreme Court for its opinion the controversial law passed by the Punjab Assembly annulling water-sharing agreements with its neighbouring States.

President A P J Abdul Kalam referred the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act 2004 to the apex Court under Article 143 of the Constitution, official sources said.

The Centre had on July 15 approached the Supreme Court for fresh directions on the construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal (SYL) following Punjab's unilateral decision to scrap its river water sharing agreements with neighbouring States.

Earlier, on June 4, the apex Court had directed the Centre to take over the construction of the Punjab portion of the canal after noting the State Government's continued reluctance to do it.

In its application filed in the court, the Centre had said that fresh directions were required in the case as completion of the SYL canal has become difficult in view of the controversial law passed by the Punjab Assembly.

Soon after the Union Government asked the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to take up the construction work of the canal, the Punjab Government, which had already approached the court for review of its June 4 order, got enacted the law scrapping all its agreements with neighbouring States on sharing of river water.

In its June 4 order, the apex Court had asked the Centre to immediately take up construction of Punjab portion of Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal rejecting Amrinder Singh Government's plea for review of an earlier directive of the court for completion of the canal.