New Delhi, September 3
The Supreme Court today ordered the Karnataka Government to release from its four reservoirs 1.25 tmc feet of water everyday to Tamil Nadu, starting tomorrow.
Brushing aside all legal objections of the Karnataka Government, a three-Judge Bench headed by Chief Justice B.N. Kirpal said, “We direct Karnataka to release water from its reservoirs so as to ensure that 1.25 tmc feet of water is made available in Tamil Nadu’s Mettur reservoir everyday till a final decision is taken by the Cauvery River Authority (CRA).”
The Bench, also comprising Mr Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat, made it clear that this interim order, to be operative from tomorrow, “shall stand automatically superseded by the decision taken by the CRA.”
Giving the final decision-making authority to the CRA, headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Bench said, “The CRA is requested to finally decide the dispute between the states with regard to pro rata sharing of water by the Cauvery river basin states, specially in times of distress.”
Karnataka tried to avert an interim order of the court, first by saying the quantum of water to be released should be worked out by experts and later by submitting that would it be legal for the court to decide the issue in the interim when the Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) was to give a report to the CRA by September 15.
The Bench passed the order after taking into consideration that the storage position in four reservoirs of Karnataka stood at 73.490 tmc feet as on August 31. The court observed that the storage would indicate that there was no distress situation in the state.
When the court sought the views of the Solicitor-General as to what percentage of the inflow into the Karnataka reservoirs be allowed to be released to Tamil Nadu, Mr Harish Salve, maintaining equidistance from the stance of the states, said the Centre could provide the figures and statistics about the inflow and outflow, but the court should determine the quantum of water to be released.
Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna later said he had convened an all-party meet tomorrow to discuss the Supreme Court order.
Mr Krishna, who was here, did not comment on the court order.
PTI, UNI
