Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on August 21 assured Tamil Nadu that he would constitute a Bench “today itself” to hear the State’s plea for the release of its allotment of Cauvery river water for the month of August.
Appearing before the Bench headed by the Chief Justice, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi and Additional Advocate General Amit Anand Tiwari, appearing for Tamil Nadu, said the plea was urgent.
“This is an urgent plea for release of Cauvery water for August as per the Cauvery Water Management Authority order… Your Lordships have to constitute a Bench. The last one was headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar [who has since retired],” Mr. Rohatgi submitted.
EXPLAINED | Why is the Cauvery water sharing issue flaring up again?
“Today itself I will constitute a Bench,” Chief Justice Chandrachud responded.
Mr. Rohatgi urged the Chief Justice to list the case at the earliest.
Tamil Nadu has moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to Karnataka to release 24,000 cusecs of Cauvery water forthwith from its reservoirs at Billigundulu for the remaining period of the month, 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 has urged the court to direct Karnataka to ensure the stipulated releases for the month of September, 2023 (36.76 TMC) as per the Cauvery Tribunal award as 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 asked the court to direct the Cauvery Water Management Authority 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 the month of 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 has said.
