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Within India, the Indus basin lies in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. Most of the basin in Pakistan lies in North-West Frontier Province, namely Punjab and Sind. According to the pre-1947 political sub-divisions, the Indus basin in India comprised the British Provinces of the Punjab, N.W.F.P. and Sind, as well as the then princely States of Jammu and Kashmir, Patiala, Nabha, Faridkot, Jind, Kapurthala, Bikaner, Bahawalpur, Jaisalmer, Khairpur, Bilaspur, Mandi, Chamba and several other small States in the Punjab hills, the North-West Frontier States and tribal areas, together with parts of the British Province of Baluchistan and of the Indian States of Jodhpur and Jaipur. Approximately 46 million people lived in this basin in 1947 with agriculture as the pivot of their economy. The Northern and Western boundaries of the Indus basin are clearly marked by mountains and hills; towards the south, however the limits of the basin are relatively obscure. The north-west mountain wall, comprising the Himalayan ranges and Siwaliks, has a great influence on the physiography of the Indus region and the hydrology of the region. The partition between India and Pakistan in 1947, which created a new political boundary in fact cut across the Indus system of rivers and canals from which 26 million acres of irrigated agriculture had already been established and from which rivers many million acres of arid lands were still waiting to be developed in turn. The Indus basin, a geographical entity, as patent as anywhere else in the world, was divided between two henceforth sovereign nations. Several proposals for sharing of water had been mooted, but ultimately the proposal for a partition with a territorial division of rivers, giving to India the exclusive use of the three Eastern Rivers (Sutlej, Beas and Ravi) and to Pakistan the use of the waters of the three Western Rivers was accepted, and an Indus Water Treaty was entered into between India and Pakistan. Government of India had to pay a contribution which was fixed at 62.5 million Pounds to Pakistan. Development of river water resources for purposes of irrigation and generation of hydro-electric power has been progressing steadily since independence. Many multi- purpose river valley schemes have been executed on interstate rivers. In many of these projects the states have cooperated in jointly developing the river concerned in an integrated manner, thus deriving the optimum benefits out of a river. But notwithstanding the same the existence of friction amongst the States, through which river flows continues and such friction between two States or two or more States has been continuing on account of lack of political will at the central level to deal with the problem with determination. The lack of interstate cooperation is the main factor leading to such dispute for sharing the water of a river. Even as between two States Punjab and Haryana, which at one point of time constituted only a single State, the dispute for additional allocation of water from this Ravi Beas basin is still pending un-resolved before a Tribunal, which had been constituted way back in the year 1986 in pursuance to the so-called 'Longowal Agreement'. We are not concerned in the present suit with regard to the Award that has been passed by the said Tribunal on 30th January, 1987; but we are certainly concerned with the continuance of such a Tribunal presided over by a retired Judge of this Court, who is sitting idle as the other members of the Tribunal had not been appointed or for some other reason, and continuance of such a Tribunal has become a source of drainage from the public exchequer without getting any return. It transpires, after the Tribunal passed the Award on 30th January, 1987, an application under Section 5(3) of the Interstate River Water Disputes Act was filed by the State of Punjab on 19th August, 1987, and no final decision has been taken on that application as a result of which the Central Government has not published the decision of the Tribunal in the Official Gazette, as required under Section 6 of Interstate River Water Disputes Act. We really fail to understand why such a high powered Tribunal supposed to decide a water dispute, referred to it, between the States of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan in relation to use, distribution or control of extra water from the Ravi Beas system, which Tribunal in terms of paragraphs 9.1 and 9.2 of Longowal Agreement dated 24th July, 1985, would be permitted to just sit idle and why the Central Government in the appropriate Ministry has not bestowed any attention for the proper functioning of such Tribunal. A Judge by virtue of his training, always acts in a manner so as to avoid public criticism for his conduct. A retired Supreme Court Judge, who has been appointed as the Chairman of a Water Disputes Tribunal, would certainly not like to sit idle at the cost of huge drainage from the public exchequer and even otherwise, it would be beneath his dignity to continue as Chairman, without doing any work. The manner in which this tribunal headed by a retired Judge of the Supreme Court has been allowed to continue, has already been a matter of severe public criticism. To avoid any further embarrassment and criticism we expect that the Central Government would do well in filling up the vacancies in the Tribunal and the Tribunal also would do well in concluding the proceeding before it, as expeditiously as possible.