BELAGAVI: In a relief to Karnataka, the division bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Misra directed the Centre to constitute a fresh negotiating panel to resolve the Ponnaiyar river dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu filed a complaint on Nov 30, 2019, under Section 3 of the Interstate River Water Disputes Act, 1956, requesting a tribunal on the grounds that as a downstream state, it may suffer because of projects planned by Karnataka.
The Centre constituted a negotiation committee on Jan 20, 2020, as mandated by Sec 4 (1) of the Act to resolve the dispute. It had two rounds of negotiations on Feb 24, 2020, and July 7, 2020, during Covid. However it reported that the dispute cannot be resolved through negotiations. The Centre then informed the SC on May 2, 2023, that it had decided to constitute a tribunal.
Deputy CM DK Shivakumar and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote to Union Water Resources Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and PM Narendra Modi, requesting the reopening of negotiations instead of the tribunal. The Centre then filed an affidavit in the SC on Oct 10, 2023, seeking reopening of negotiations.
Senior counsel Krishnamurthy, appearing for Tamil Nadu, opposed the Centre’s request, terming it a waste of time. But senior counsel Mohan Katarki, representing Karnataka, submitted that the previous committee hurriedly concluded only after two meetings that the dispute could not be resolved by negotiation. It did not conduct field visits, he pointed out. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, submitted that inter-state disputes being sensitive further negotiations should be permitted.
The bench directed the Union government to constitute a fresh negotiation committee and that it should submit its report within three months.