New Delhi: Tamil Nadu on Thursday asserted in the Supreme Court that the State which was dependent on Cauvery waters was always at the receiving end as Karnataka had never implemented in full any of the orders passed by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal or by the court.
Making this submission before a three judge bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Amitav Roy and A.M. Kanwilkar, senior counsel Shekar Naphade and counsel G. Umapathy pointed out that Cauvery was the life line for TN. Mr Naphade said Karnataka had unilaterally constructed projects in the Cauvery basin without any sanction or approval from the Centre.
Mr Naphade said the fact that the Centre did not notify the final award of February 2007 till the apex court intervened in 2013 asking it to publish the award in the Gazette, would show how prejudiced the Centre was towards TN. Mr Naphade drew the court’s attention to the strong opposition from Karnataka for the setting up of the Cauvery Management Board, which is a regulatory body for the release of water to TN as per the Tribunal’s award. At this juncture the Bench asked Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to address this issue when the Centre’s argument takes place.
Refuting senior counsel Fali Nariman’s arguments for Karnataka, Mr Naphade submitted that most of Mr Nariman’s submissions were wrong and contrary to the facts. He said the Tribunal had held valid the agreements of 1892 and 1924. But it did not protect the existing irrigation in Cauvery basin of TN. The Tribunal reduced the area from 29.27 lakh acres to 24.70 lakh acres. It had erred in granting new areas for irrigation in Karnataka, which were merely at the stage of proposal and not commenced.
The counsel said that this determination of the areas by reducing the existing irrigated area in Tamil Nadu and allowing the proposed area to be brought under irrigation by Karnataka was contrary to the principle of equitable allotment of waters of Inter State River.
