New Delhi: The Apex Court of India has agreed to upon the request to hear a contempt plea of the Tamil Nadu government against the Centre for not constituting the Cauvery Management Board (CMB).
The matter was posted for 9 April by a bench comprising of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud.
“We understand Tamil Nadu’s difficulty of not getting water. We will resolve the issue. List the matter for 9 April,” the bench said.
The Tamil Nadu government had demanded contempt action against the Central Government for its general “failure” to frame the scheme for constitution of the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee within six weeks, as directed by the apex court on 16 February.
The Government of Tamil Nadu had stated in its contempt plea that the Central Government was bound to give effect to the judgment by framing a scheme so that the authorities of Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee can be put in place within the time frame of six weeks.
It also said that the concerned authorities need to be in place in order to implement the decisions of the tribunal as modified by the Supreme Court in accordance with the time schedule prescribed therein.
The Centre, meanwhile, in its petition had said that since there was friction in views between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on the constitution of the CMB, the Supreme Court should clarify whether “it is open to the central government to frame the scheme under 6A at variance with the recommendations contained in the report of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT) regarding the Cauvery Management Board”.
Karnataka has already opposed to the proposal of the constitution of the CMB and demanded some alternative mechanism to implement the verdict.
The Union government further said that considering the overall sensitivity of the issues involved, the Supreme Court may also clarify whether it considers any flexibility in modifying the composition of the CMB to “a mixture of administrative and technical body” and “not purely a technical body” as it was recommended by the CWDT for effective conduct of the business of the board.
The apex court had on 16 February raised the 270 tmcft share of Cauvery river water for Karnataka by about 14.75 tmcft and reduced Tamil Nadu’s share, while compensating it by allowing extraction of 10 tmcft groundwater from the river basin, saying “the issue of drinking water has to be placed on a higher pedestal”.
With the Supreme Court’s ruling, the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry would be annually entitled to about 404.25 tmcft, 284.75 tmcft, 30 tmcft and 7 tmcft of Cauvery water, respectively out of the total of 740 tmcft of water.
The Supreme Court had granted six weeks’ time for the Central Government to formulate a scheme to ensure compliance of its 465-page judgment on the decades-old Cauvery dispute, and made its stance clear that it will no longer be extending further time on the matter.
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