In a setback to Karnataka, the Supreme Court directed the state to release 2 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu and asked the Central Water Commission to file a report on the water requirement of the two warring states. The bench asked the commission to form a three-member expert body which will visit the states and directed it to file report within two days.
“Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu is permitted 2 TMC water from storage to save standing crops. Irrespective of the report of the expert committee, Karnataka shall compensate Tamil Nadu by releasing two TMC water,” the bench said. It posted the matter for further hearing on February 7.
The court was hearing Tamil Nadu’s petition seeking immediate release of 12 TMC of water. Tamil Nadu claims that failure by its neighbour state to release water has resulted in damage to its standing crops.
The top court also rebuked the Centre for failing to notify the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award on sharing of the Cauvery river water between the two states, and set February 20 as the deadline for the notification. A bench headed by Justice R.M. Lodha said the Centre had been “flouting the law” by sitting on the award for the last five years and that the government is bound by the act under which the tribunal was set up in 1990. The top court directed the Centre to notify the award as expeditiously as possible but not later than February 20.
The top court’s deadline on the issue has come after the Centre, which had been wary of stepping into the sensitive issue, did not notify the six-year-old final order of the tribunal even after the court in December 2012 issued a specific direction to set a timeframe for this. The final award, which would have huge implications on the decade-old water dispute, had come out after a 16-year-long proceeding of the tribunal.
“You flouted the law of the act for the last five years. You have no option but to notify the final award. That is the mandate given by Parliament. No option has been given to you once the final award is made by the tribunal. You have no choice and discretion,” the bench said.