NEW DELHI: Refusing to grant the union government six months time to constitute an inter-state river water disputes tribunal to resolve the Pennaiyar river dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed it to complete the process within three months.
A bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said considering the facts and circumstances of the matter, we grant the Centre time till March 14 to complete the process of constituting the tribunal.
Apprising the bench of the process that is to be followed for constituting the tribunal, the union government in the application before the court said it may not be possible to constitute the tribunal within four weeks. Seeking an extension of six months, the government added that pursuant to the Minister of Jal Shakti approving the cabinet note for the constitution of the tribunal, the note was circulated to the Ministries of Home Affairs, Law and Justice, and Finance in addition to the Prime Minister’s Office on November 29 this year for their comments and observations on the matter.
The court issued the order on Wednesday pertaining to a suit filed by Tamil Nadu on May 18, 2018, seeking a permanent injunction on the Pennaiyar river project. The dispute had been raging between the states since 2007.
In its petition, Tamil Nadu had said “The projects undertaken by the first defendant (Karnataka) would severely affect the livelihood of lakhs of farmers in Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Thiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Cuddalore districts in Tamil Nadu as the river flow will be drastically reduced or hampered besides affecting the drinking water needs of the plaintiff state.”
On November 14, 2019, the Supreme Court permitted the Tamil Nadu government to make an appropriate application invoking the powers of the union government in terms of the provisions of the Inter-State River Dispute Act, 1956, and seek the constitution of an inter-state river water disputes tribunal.