New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday, July 13, declined to hear a petition filed by the Telangana government relating to the Polavaram project, sharing of river waters and the Banakacherla scheme, citing defects in the plea.
Justice Vikram Nath, who heard the matter, refused to issue notice to the Andhra Pradesh government or grant any interim relief sought by Telangana, holding that the petition would first have to be rectified before it could be taken up.
Plea suffers from defects: SC
Appearing for Telangana, counsel urged the court to issue notice to the Andhra Pradesh government and pass interim orders and told the bench that the petition named 15 respondents.
The bench, however, said the main petition suffered from defects and could not be taken up for hearing until these were cured. It made clear that neither would notice be issued nor the matter heard till the defects in the plea were rectified.
The court said all other aspects of the case would be taken up only after the petition was corrected and properly re-filed.
A long-running water dispute
The Polavaram-Banakacherla issue, now referred to by Andhra Pradesh as the Polavaram-Nallamala Sagar Link Project, has been a flashpoint between the two Telugu states for months. Telangana contends that Andhra Pradesh is expanding the Polavaram project’s canal network and building new reservoirs and tunnels to divert far more Godavari floodwater to the Krishna basin than the 80 TMC originally cleared, without mandatory clearances from the Central Water Commission and in violation of the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal award and the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
It has also cited the risk of submergence in Khammam, Bhadradri Kothagudem and Mulugu districts from backwater effects. Andhra Pradesh has defended the project as necessary for its water-scarce regions.
Monday’s plea is not Telangana’s first attempt to halt the project through the courts. It had earlier moved the Supreme Court in December 2025 with a writ petition seeking a stay, but a bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant termed that plea “prima facie not maintainable” in January and suggested the dispute be pursued as a civil suit instead, following which Telangana withdrew it with liberty to explore other remedies.
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy have also taken up the matter with the Union government and written to the Godavari River Management Board seeking a halt to the project’s appraisal.
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