The Supreme Court on Wednesday postponed pronouncing its verdict in the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal case after the Punjab government sought more time to file a detailed reply. The bench scheduled the next hearing for February 15, reported ANI.

The top court has asked the Punjab and central government to file their replies within three weeks. Earlier, it had struck down a Punjab law that dismissed a pact to share water with five other states. Several Congress legislators had resigned from the Punjab Assembly on November 11 to mark their protest against the ruling.

Congress state chief Amarinder Singh had accused Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of “failing to protect the interest” of the state. Badal, however, had said that the Shiromani Akali Dal would ensure that Punjab’s water was not taken away. He had also emphasised that the water-sharing dispute was a “livelihood and economic issue” and not a political one.

While pronouncing its earlier verdict, the Supreme Court had also ordered a status quo on a resolution passed by the ruling SAD-Bharatiya Janata Party government, through which the Punjab government had denotified the land acquired to construct the canal to return the plots to the farmers.

The Centre was to take over the construction of the canal meant to distribute water among six states – Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Delhi.