NEW DELHI: The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it does not trust the Centre as far as the Cauvery case is concerned, as they took six years to publish Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award (CWDT) award in the gazette and haven’t even constituted the management board. The State also questioned the rights of Karnataka on using the water at its own will as this would alter the 2007 CWDT award, and blamed Centre for not implementing the tribunal’s award so far.
Senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for Tamil Nadu, told the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Amitava Roy and Justice A M Khanwilkar that the use of Cauvery water for the purposes other than for which it has been allocated would introduce a fundamental change in the basis of the tribunal award. “A fundamental change in a situation should provide for review of the award. If Karnataka decides to change use of water, I am entitled to raise a dispute,” he said.
Urging SC to frame a scheme for implementation of the award, Naphade said, “We have virtually become a beggar before Karnataka. ” Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar appearing on behalf of the Centre told the bench that it had held back its hands on the implementation of the 2007 Cauvery award as the matter was pending before the SC, and said that it would comply with the orders of the court.
The court said it would give the Centre time to comply with its order after the pronouncement and added, “Our concern is that no vacuum should be created and things should work well.” Meanwhile, the Centre placed before the bench 12 clarifications it had sought, which included why the CWDT award that had come on February 5, 2007, was gazetted on February 19, 2013. The hearing will continue on Wednesday.