Cauvery Dispute: Supreme Court Frames Issues In Suit Filed By Karnataka Against Tamil Nadu
The Supreme Court has framed issues in the original suit file by the State of Karnataka against the State of Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry for overutilization and consumption of water of River Cauvery and bifurcation of waters of River Cauvery as “Karnataka Cauvery Water” and “Tamil Nadu Cauvery Water”.
The Bench of Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan framed eight issues, “1. Whether the Suit is barred by Section 11 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 read with Article 262(2) of the Constitution of India?
2. Whether the Suit is barred by principles of Res Judicata?
3. Whether the plaintiff is entitled to commit, enjoy or utilise “Karnataka Cauvery Water” as defined in paragraph 6(a) of the Plaint?
4. Whether defendant Nos.1 and 3 are not entitled to commit, enjoy or utilise any water in the Cauvery basin in addition to “Tamil Nadu Cauvery Water” as defined in paragraph 6(b) of the Plaint?
5. Whether the Suit premised on the bifurcation of waters of River Cauvery as “Karnataka Cauvery Water” and “Tamil Nadu Cauvery Water” is at all maintainable?
6. Whether the projects sought to be undertaken by the first defendant prejudicially affect the rights and interests of the plaintiff-State?
7. Whether the Suit is at all maintainable in the absence of existence of any cause of action?
8. What relief, if any?”
Senior Advocates Shyam Diwan, Mohan V. Katarki, R.S. Ravi and AG Shashi Kiran Shetty appeared for the Plaintiff and Senior AAG V. Krishnamurthy, Senior Advocates G. Umapathy, P. Wilson, N.R. Elango, Jaideep Gupta and C.S. Vaidyanathan appeared for the Defendants.
The Court further granted time of six weeks to the parties to file documents. In the previous hearing, the Court directed the parties to file their draft issues.
The Supreme Court in a different plea had refused to interfere with the order of the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC ) directing the Karnataka government to release 5,000 cusecs of water per day to Tamil Nadu for 15 days.
The (CWRC) in its September 12 2023 order, which was upheld by CWMA, had directed Karnataka to release 5,000 cusecs (cubic foot per second) of water every day for the next 15 days to Tamil Nadu.
A bench of Justice BR Gavai, Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra had said it was not inclined to entertain Tamil Nadu's plea challenging the CWMA decision on the ground that it was facing a drought-like situation due to rain deficit. The bench had noted that bodies like CWMA and CWRC, which have experts from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), and those on agriculture and water resource management, have considered all relevant aspects like drought, deficit rainfall, water level in the river and only then passed the order.
On August 25, 2023, the Apex Court had refused to pass any order on the Tamil Nadu Government's plea seeking the release of 24,000 cusecs of Cauvery water daily by Karnataka for irrigating the standing crops. The apex court had sought a report from the CWMA on the amount of water released by Karnataka.
Rainfall has been 25 per cent lower and water inflow into Karnataka's four reservoirs 42.5 per cent lesser, an affidavit filed by the upper riparian said, adding the stipulated release shall not be applicable this year. The Karnataka government said in the affidavit the southwest monsoon has largely failed so far during the current water year. A "distress condition" has arisen in the Cauvery basin in Karnataka, it said.
"Karnataka, therefore, is not obliged to and it cannot be compelled to ensure water as per the stipulated relief is prescribed for the normal year," the affidavit stated.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had earlier said a fresh bench will be set up to hear the decades-old dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over sharing of the Cauvery River water.
Accordingly, the present original suit is now listed on top of the board on May 9, 2024.
Cause Title: State of Karnataka v. State of Tamil Nadu and Ors. (Original Suit(S). No. 3/2021)
Appearances:
Plaintiff: Senior Advocates Shyam Divan, Mohan V. Katarki, R.S. Ravi, AG Shashi Kiran Shetty, Advocates V.N. Raghupathy, Govind Manoharan, Sudipto Sircar, Mayank Jain, Adithya Bhat and Adoorya Bomakka Harish.
Defendants: Senior AAG V. Krishnamurthy, Senior Advocates G. Umapathy, P. Wilson, N.R. Elango, Jaideep Gupta, C.S. Vaidyanathan, Advocates D. Kumanan, Aravindh, Gurmeet Singh Makker, Jishnu ML, Priyanka Prakash, Beena Prakash, Anoop R, G Prakash, Ekta Muyal, Kavita, Arun Goel, Pranay Ranjan, Ishaan Sharma, Veer Vikrant Singh, Aaditya Dixit, Pratyush Shrivastav.
