Will toe Supreme Court line on Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, says Karnataka

“We will stick to the Supreme Court order. I want to say no more than that,” Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra told reporters on the sidelines of a media briefing on cabinet meeting.

The Supreme Court had on Tuesday retained its direction to Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs till further orders and asked the two states to ensure peace and harmony, saying citizens should not become law unto themselves. 

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra, which commenced the crucial hearing on various issues arising out of the dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over sharing of Cauvery water, had said it first intended to adjudicate the issue of maintainability of appeals filed by both the states and Kerala against the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal’s award. “The interim order dated October 4 directing Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of water per day to Tamil Nadu will continue till further orders,” the bench also comprising Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar had said. 

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on maintainability of appeals filed by the three states. “Judgement reserved. Interim order of October 18 to continue till further orders,” the bench said. The bench asked the parties to file their written submissions by October 24 and said it would pass the order thereafter. 

Continuing its argument, Senior advocate Fali S Nariman, appearing for Karnataka, said that appeals filed by the State against the award of the tribunal was maintainable and that the Supreme Court had the jurisdiction to adjudicate the appeals filed by the state against the award of tribunal. 

Senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for Tamil Nadu, also contended that the appeals were maintainable and no statute can take away the powers of the apex court. “Section 6(2) of Inter-state Water Disputes Act, 1956, cannot oust Supreme Court’s constitutional appellate powers given under Article 136 of the Constitution,” Naphade said. 

Similarly, Kerala also supported the stand of Karnataka and said that the appeals were maintainable. However, Puducherry supported the stand of the Centre that the appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are not maintainable.

The bench had on Tuesday said it would first go into the issue of maintainability of appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the award of tribunal and then hear arguments on the report filed by the Supervisory Committee formed to assess the ground realities in the Cauvery basin region.

The apex court-appointed panel had in its recent report suggested doing away with “outdated and unscientific water application techniques” to resolve the wrangle, saying both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were facing water shortage.