The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) to submit a report on the status of discharge of the river water by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu, especially its availability for the next fortnight.
A three-judge Bench headed by Justice B.R. Gavai directed the CWMA to submit the report before September 1.
The direction came after Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati said that the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee was meeting on August 28 to discuss the release of water for the next fortnight. The decision would then be referred to the CWMA.
The court recorded Karnataka’s dissatisfaction with a CWMA order to release 10,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu.
On the contrary, Tamil Nadu, represented by senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi, C.S. Vaidyanathan and advocate G. Umapathy, also voiced its discontent about the CWMA order and sought an enhancement in the quantity of water to be released.
“There is a shortfall of 47%. We want a pro-tem order. There is a huge deficit from which I am only getting a pittance,” Mr. Rohatgi complained.
Mr. Rohatgi submitted that Karnataka had failed in its obligation to supply the allotted water to Tamil Nadu. Karnataka, represented by senior advocate Shyam Divan, countered that water had already been discharged and would take three days to travel to Tamil Nadu.
Dire necessity, says TN
Tamil Nadu had moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to Karnataka to forthwith release 24,000 cusecs of water from its reservoirs at Billigundulu for the remaining period of August, starting from August 14. The State said the release of water was a dire necessity to meet the pressing demands of the standing crops.
Tamil Nadu had also urged the Supreme Court to direct Karnataka to ensure the stipulated releases for September, 2023 (36.76 TMC) as per the Cauvery Tribunal award modified by the Supreme Court in 2018.
The State said Karnataka should make good the shortfall of 28.849 TMC water during the current irrigation year for the period between June 1 to July 31.
It had asked the court to direct the CWMA to ensure that the directions issued to Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu were “fully implemented and the stipulated monthly releases during the remaining period of the current water year are fully given effect to by the State of Karnataka”.
Tamil Nadu said that Karnataka had to ensure to make good the deficit in water supply from Billigundulu as on August 9, which was 37.971 TMC in addition to the demand of around 24,000 cusecs, in August.
A direction was given to Karnataka on August 10 to release from its reservoirs 15,000 cusecs at Billigundulu on August 11 for 15 days.
“Unfortunately, even this quantum of water was arbitrarily reduced to 10,000 cusecs by the CWMA in its 22nd meeting held on August 11 at the instance of Karnataka. Regretfully, even this amount of 10,000 cusecs to be ensured at Billigundulu by releasing such quantum of water from the KRS and Kabini reservoirs has not been complied with by Karnataka,” the Tamil Nadu application had argued.
Distressed water year, says Karnataka
Karnataka countered in the Supreme Court that Tamil Nadu had failed to understand that 2023 was not a normal water year, but a “distressed water year”.
Tamil Nadu’s plea for release of 24,000 cusecs every day was based on an erroneous assumption.
Karnataka said Tamil Nadu itself had stated that rainfall had dried up by 25% and the inflow into four reservoirs in Karnataka has dipped by 42.5% up to August 9, 2023 as per the CWMA records.
The State said the stipulated release of 36.76 TMC for September had no legal basis. It said this was a quantity stipulated in the normal water year and not during a distress year.
