J. Venkatesan Final approval a deliberate act to make suit infructuous Supreme Court Bench issues notice to Centre Maharashtra and Karnataka can file applications for impleadment New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre on Orissa's application seeking a stay on the operation of the final approval granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for the Indira Sagar Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh and for a direction to maintain status quo in its execution. A Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Mukundakam Sharma also permitted Maharashtra and Karnataka to file applications for impleading themselves in the suit filed by Orissa against Andhra Pradesh. The Bench asked Orissa to delete the Union Ministries of Environment and Forest and Tribal Affairs from the list of parties and to retain only the Ministry of Water Resources. The court granted the Centre four weeks for filing its response and directed that the matter be listed after five weeks. In its application, the Orissa government said it came to know about environmental clearance for the project only recently. The conditions stipulated in the July 28, 2010 clearance granted by the MoEF were similar to what was contained in the letter given in 2009 granting in-principle approval. Even while the 2009 approval was pending in court and was a subject matter of adjudication, granting the final approval on the same conditions would amount to over-reaching the Supreme Court's orders and interference in proceedings. The application pointed out that the project on an inter-State river would have serious consequences of submergence and adverse environmental impact on Orissa territory. Despite this, the Centre gave clearance without any intimation or notice to the Orissa government. Drawing a distinction between the original and revised proposals, the application pointed out that Orissa entered into the 1980 agreement with Andhra Pradesh based on a maximum backwater level of 174.22 feet for a maximum discharge of 36 lakh cusecs as put forth by that State. However, according to the Andhra Pradesh government's application before the MoEF, backwater spread would go as high as 182 feet for 36 lakh cusecs. Therefore the basic or most fundamental assumption of fact, on which the agreement was entered into, turned out be wrong.