In 1986, V Balakrishna Eradi, then a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, was appointed chairperson of the Ravi-Beas River Waters Tribunal to look into the dispute regarding sharing of these waters between Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
In December last year, almost 25 years after he was appointed, Eradi passed away at 89. Another member of the tribunal is retired judge P C Balakrishna Menon (retd), who is 83. Meanwhile, the bitter dispute between the three states over sharing of water, which has seen crores being spent and was also one of the reasons for the growth of terrorism in Punjab, remains unresolved.
Another former Supreme Court judge, N P Singh, was appointed chairman of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in December 1996. Singh is now 80 and still chairman. And retired judge N S Rao, who is the same age as Singh, has been associated with the tribunal since it was set up in June 1990 to resolve the dispute over sharing of Cauvery water between Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Puducherry. Read more