The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to soft drinks major Coca-Cola on a Kerala government plea challenging two high court orders that allowed the company's Plachimada bottling unit to draw 500,000 litres of ground water a day.

A bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat tagged the state government's plea along with the main petition seeking stay of the April 7 order of the Kerala high court that asked the Perumatty gram panchayat to renew the licence of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Ltd to enable it to draw ground water.

Soft drinks, hard truths

The panchayat did not renew the licence of the soft drink major on the ground that it had not been given a clearance certificate from the Pollution Control Board.

Later, the high court again directed the panchayat to renew the licence of the company.

The panchayat had contended that it had the right to refuse keeping in view the interests of farm and domestic consumers.