New Delhi: The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the Centre’s draft Cauvery Water Management Scheme and asked the Government to notify and give effect to it before the “impending monsoon.”
The three-Judge Bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud concluded that the draft scheme was in consonance with the Cauvery Water Tribunal’s award, as modified by the Court on Feb.16, and was also in conformity with the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act of 1956. The Court also dismissed Tamil Nadu’s plea seeking initiation of contempt against the Centre for non-finalisation of the Cauvery scheme.
Karnataka, which is facing political tug-of-war between BJP and Congress-JDS over government formation, had earlier made a failed bid to temporarily stall the finalisation of draft Cauvery Management Scheme. The scheme, once finalised, would deal with the issue of water share of the four States in different circumstances like normal and deficient water years in the Cauvery River basin.
Justice Khanwilkar, who authored the verdict, directed the Centre to take the scheme to its “logical end in accordance with the law with promptitude.”
The Court dismissed objections raised by Kerala and Karnataka that the scheme encroached upon the States’ authority to conserve and use the waters under the State List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
This post was published on May 19, 2018 6:35 pm