In recent years, there has been considerable pressure for revisiting the legal arrangements providing the basis for water resource use in India. This is, for instance, reflected in the revision of the National Water Policy in 2002. It clearly provides a significant role for the public sector in fostering more sustainable water, while at the same time calling for stronger private sector participation and further use of participatory approaches in water resource use. Towards operationalizing the changed policy, several legislative measures have been taken by a few states such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

Water law in India must be understood at various levels – different laws apply for different uses of water; there are vast regional disparities within a single river basin; and even within a region and a sector, the use of water may be governed by a combination of formal law and community practice. Even when focused on the formal legal system, it must be understood that the legal regime for water resources in India rests on a Centre-State framework, where ownership and control of water resources is generally with the States within whose territories the water basin falls. The Central Government has limited legislative and executive powers with respect to regulation, development and dispute resolution over inter-state rivers, but it cannot undertake a project for inter-basin transfers (such as the proposed mega-project for river-linking) without the consent of the constituent states.

Since the 1990s, there have been changes in the water policy and the statutes that have been proposed and adopted at the union and the state level. These changes have been broadly in the area of regulation of groundwater, setting up of water regulatory authorities and the introduction of participatory irrigation management through the setting up of water users associations.

The IELRC water project aims to contribute to awareness building on the legal aspects of water laws, and water reforms in the country. In furtherance of this objective, this page contains links to draft bills and recent state enactments on water laws. This publicly-available database is intended to be freely available but lays no claim to being comprehensive or accurate. You are advised to cross-check the contents elsewhere before relying on it.