The UPA government, it seems, can no longer drag its feet over the Sethusamudram project with the Supreme Court on Tuesday categorically asking it “to dispose of its stand” quickly as the matter could not be allowed to be kept hanging forever.

Hearing an application filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, who had sought the court’s intervention in the controversial Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP), a three-member Bench headed by CJI K G Balakrishnan observed, “You (government) have to dispose of your stand.”

“When the matter was being heard, you said a report would be coming. Now state what is the report? What would be your stand as the report is with you and you have to take a decision,” Justice R V Raveendran noted as Swamy pointed out that already 15 months had lapsed and the Centre was yet to take a stand on it.

On July 30, 2008, the apex court had reserved its verdict on a batch of petitions challenging the SSCP after the Centre conveyed that an expert committee headed by eminent environmentalist R K Pachauri had been constituted to give its views on the matter. The expert panel’s task was to examine the feasibility of pushing the project through an alternative route.

Swamy, in his brief arguments before the Bench, also comprising Justice J M Panchal, claimed the report of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) was submitted to the Pachauri panel on March 6 this year. “Yet the government hasn’t finalised a stand. It’s a huge waste of taxpayer’s money, there has to be a time limit,” Swamy argued.

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