New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala to bring technical expert to the court to explain ‘technical issues and data’ relating to the Cauvery water dispute being adjudicated.
A three-judge Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Amitav Roy and A.M. Kanwilkar made this suggestion even as senior counsel for Tamil Nadu Shekar Naphade and counsel G. Umapathy read out statistics to drive home the point as to how the lower riparian State was deprived of water by the upper riparian State of Karnataka. The Bench said “we want to understand the technical details and we request the states to bring one technical expert (at the final stage of arguments) each so that the nuances can be explained to us”. Senior counsel Fali Nariman appearing for Karnataka strongly objected to Tamil nadu using 2009, 2011 and 2014 statistics in support of its contention and said since the final award of the Cauvery Water disputes Tribunal was in February 2007, subsequent statistics should not be allowed to be furnished.
