BENGALURU: Karnataka has not filed a review petition on the final judgement given by the Supreme Court regarding the sharing of the Cauvery River waters, following legal opinion obtained by it, the state government today said.
It was decided in an all-party meeting that a decision be taken on whether to file a review plea in consultation with the legal team headed by Fali Nariman and senior advocate Shyam Diwan, Water Resources Minister M B Patil said.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with members of parliament and union ministers from the state, he said "Fali Nariman, as well as Shyam Diwan (who appeared for the state in the apex court), were of the opinion not to file the review. Accordingly Karnataka has not filed the review."
The meeting was convened by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah where the state Advocate General and the legal team explained about the effect of the court judgement last month.
Earlier, after an all party meeting on March 8, Siddaramaiah had said the state government will take a decision in consultation with the state legal team on filing a review petition.
In its judgement on petitions by Karnatka and Tamil Nadu over the final order of the Cauvery water disputes tribunal apportioning the water among the reparian states, the Supreme Court had raised the 270 tmcft share of Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and reduced Tamil Nadu's share.
The court compensated Tamil Nadu's reduction by allowing extraction of 10 tmcft groundwater from the river basin.
Patil also said while the tribunal had proposed the Cauvery Management Board, the Supreme Court in its order has spoken about a scheme under section 6A to formulate a dispute redressal forum.
"A detailed discussion happened today, everybody has given their valuable suggestions including the Union Ministers and the MPs," he said without elaborating.
Tamil Nadu has been demanding that the centre constitute the board.
Patil said the Chief Secretaries and the Principal Secretaries of all the four states were invited by the Union Water Resources Secretary for discussions where Karnataka has expressed its view in writing about the formulation of scheme.
"All of the members are in concurrence with the stand which the government has taken based on the legal opinion. All members have agreed on that and accordingly all of us together will try to protect the interest of the state," he added.
Union Ministers Ananth Kumar, Sadananda Gowda, MPs Prahlad Joshi and Pratap Simha of BJP were among those present at the meeting today.
Ananth Kumar said that on the issue of Karnataka's right over the Cauvery water "we all are together."
He also said the apex court has nowhere mentioned about the Cauvery Management Board, adding it has instructed that there should be a scheme and it should have dispute redressal forum.
"How to frame it. therefore the Union Government is in consultation with all the four riparian states," he added.