Guest Column: It's official now, Karnataka is in a deep mess!

I have written extensively about the Cauvery water dispute over the past two months. Not once did I criticise the Supreme Court, Tamil Nadu or the central government. However, the September 30 order of the Supreme Court is being seen as a death knell for Karnataka and criticism of these institutions has reached fever pitch in Karnataka. I see no need to join that chorus.

If you are going to ask me – is Karnataka absolutely bound to release water to TN now? My answer is: If Karnataka government is of the honest view that the Cauvery water in its reservoirs is just enough to cover the drinking water requirement of Karnataka and there is no more to spare, it would be justified in not releasing any more water to Tamil Nadu. I will invoke Mahatma Gandhi here. He had said that being jailed is not a disgrace by itself. The disgrace is in the reason for being jailed. Over the past few days, I repeatedly reminded the Karnataka CM to show moral courage and leadership by attending the SC himself to inform it about the distress, take personal responsibility for the failure to abide by the court orders and not transfer it upon the chief secretary or the irrigation principal secretary, and to invite the Court to punish him. That would have been an honest, lawful and a statesmanly response to the problem.

He requested for a plainly unlawful confrontation with the judiciary – the resolution of the legislature, and has damaged the state’s case even further. This resolution has no legal validity.

The SC rightly refused to even take note of it. To a layperson who might wonder why this is of no legal validity, how about another resolution saying that the Cauvery water within Karnataka will only be released to TN after meeting human and irrigation needs of the people of Karnataka? Such a resolution would once and for all end the Cauvery water dispute, if only it would have any legal validity. The Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal passed its final Order in February 2007. While all the four states appealed to the SC, it was absolutely necessary for Karnataka to request the court to hear this case expeditiously. It slept tight for all these years. The recent orders of the SC are meant to give effect to that 2007 order of the Tribunal – to a limited extent only, as there isn’t enough water in Karnataka.

The Cauvery Monitoring Board is a body that is meant to give effect to that final order of the Tribunal. One cannot object to it in principle.

I request Siddaramaiah to personally own up to the legal and moral responsibility for Karnataka’s inability to release water to Tamil Nadu – not transfer the legal blame upon someone else or think of creative or damaging ways of defying the order of the Supreme Court. He should take refuge in honesty, humility and moral courage. This crisis will simply halt at once.
K.V. Dhananjay is a Supreme Court Advocate