The Supreme Court (SC) today issued a notice to soft drinks major Coca Cola on a plea by the Perumatty gram panchayat seeking to stay two Kerala High Court orders that allowed the company's Plachimada-based bottling unit to draw five lakh litres of groundwater every day.A bench, comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice B N Srikrishna, tagged the application with the main petition challenging the April 7 order of the High Court.The High Court had ordered the panchayat to renew the licence of Hindustan Coca Cola Bevarages to enable it to draw groundwater.The bench also issued a notice to the Kerala government on the application filed by the panchayat.The panchayat has contended that it had a right to refuse drawal of large quantities of groundwater by Coca Cola keeping in view the interests of agriculture and domestic consumers.
