The Supreme Court has asked the Central Government to provide information about whether the matter of releasing sufficient water from the Sardar Sarovar Dam to the downstream regions of the Narmada River has been submitted to the Narmada Control Authority.

A panel led by Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta has instructed the Ministry of Environment and Forests to provide the court with the relevant information on this issue within a four-week period.

The bench granted the respondent's counsel a four-week period to determine whether the issue had been referred to the Narmada Control Authority and to provide information on the outcome, and scheduled the next hearing for January 12, 2024.

The Supreme Court was considering an appeal filed by the Narmada Pradushan Nivaran Samiti and the Bharuch Citizen Council. They were challenging a 2019 decision of the National Green Tribunal, which declined to hear their plea, citing the existence of an established tribunal to address the issue.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had indicated that two existing bodies, namely the Water Dispute Tribunal and the Narmada Control Authority, were already established to address matters related to the river.

The petition had requested the release of a sufficient amount of water from the Sardar Sarovar Dam to the regions downstream of the Narmada River. Additionally, the petition had asked for directives to urgently allocate a daily provision of 1,500 cusecs of water from the Sardar Sarovar Dam to the downstream regions of the river.

The petition argued that the desiccation of the riverbed was causing significant harm to the environment, agriculture, and local industries.

The petitioners asserted that the river's flow had diminished to a mere small stream because only 600 cusecs of water were being discharged from the dam.

The petition made reference to a letter authored by the Narmada and Water Resources, Water Supply, and Kalpsar department, which had stated that the water being released for the downstream regions of the river was inadequate, and it called for an urgent intervention.