NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted the central government four weeks time to complete the process of constituting the Inter-State River Water Disputes Tribunal to resolve the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka Pennaiyar river dispute on being informed that the same could not be constituted due to the polls. The matter was listed before the bench led by Justice MR Shah.
On December 14, a bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar had granted centre three months to form the tribunal but had however rejected to grant centre six months time to complete the process.
The central government in its application before the SC had stated that it may not be possible to constitute the tribunal within four weeks. Seeking an extension of six months, centre had said that pursuant to the Minister of Jal Shakti approving the cabinet note for the constitution of the water disputes tribunal it has been circulated to MHA, Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Finance and PMO on November 29, 2022, for their comments.
Court’s order came in the suit was filed by Tamil Nadu on May 18, 2018, seeking a permanent injunction on the project. The dispute had been raging since 2007.
In its petition, Tamil Nadu had said, “The projects undertaken by the 1st Defendant (State of Karnataka) would severely affect the livelihood of lakhs of farmers in Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Thiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Cuddalore districts of Plaintiff State as the flow of the river will be drastically reduced/ hampered besides affecting the drinking water needs of the Plaintiff state.”
On November 14, 2019, SC had permitted the Tamil Nadu government to make an appropriate application invoking the powers of the Central Government in terms of the provisions of the Inter-State River Dispute Act, 1956, and seek constitution of an Inter-State River Water Disputes Tribunal.