NEW DELHI: On Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed the Centre’s contention that it had no jurisdiction over the Cauvery water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, said the maintainability of appeals filed by the southern states against the 2007 award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT) on sharing the river water. It scheduled the next hearing for December 15.
The court added that its interim order issued to Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of water from the river to Tamil Nadu stands till further notice.
The Centre, through Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, had raised a preliminary objection claiming that the CWDT award amounted to a final decree in the dispute and the apex court had no jurisdiction to hear appeals against the award of the tribunal.
But the states had contended that their appeals were maintainable saying the Supreme Court had the jurisdiction to adjudicate the appeals filed by the state against the award of tribunal and that no statute can take away the appellate powers of the apex court under Article 136 of Constitution.
However, Puducherry supported the stand of the Centre that the appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are not maintainable.
Earlier, Rohatgi had argued that Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to adjudicate the appeals pertaining to the dispute relating to use, distribution and control of inter-state water or river valley.
The attorney general had said as per the constitutional provisions, the inter-state water dispute tribunal is headed by a retired Supreme Court or High Court judge and its decree has a force like that of a decree of the Supreme Court and thus the apex court cannot hear the appeals against its own order.