The Supreme Court on Monday refused to cancel its order directing Karnataka to supply water to Tamil Nadu from the Cauvery river basin but agreed to reduce the quantum to be released from 15,000 cusecs per day to 12,000 cusecs per day till September 20.
Taking up the urgent application filed by Karnataka on a holiday, a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and UU lalit said that prevailing violence in the State cannot be a ground to defy the court order. Asking the people of Karnataka to respect law and order, the SC asked the State authorities in both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to prevent citizens from taking law into their own hands.
As the hearing began a little after 10.30 am, senior advocate Fali S Nariman opened the argument on Karnataka’s application. The Bench was perplexed on how the State can hide behind the prevailing protests to seek deferment of the court’s order for a week.
The application by Karnatak said, “The application is necessitated not merely because of the spontaneous agitation in the various parts of Karnataka including Bangalore, Mandya, Mysore and Hassan in the Cauvery Basin, which has paralysed normal life besides destroying public and private properties (in hundreds of crores of rupees), but also having regard to the ground realities of needs and requirements as stated in the application.”
Taking serious exception to the manner in which the application was drafted, the SC said, “Agitation in spontaneity or propelled by some motivation or galvanised by any kind of catalytic component, can never form the foundation for seeking modification of an order.”
Commenting on the violence, the SC said, “It is the obligation of the Executive (State) to see that the order is complied with…concept of deviance has no room and disobedience has no space. The citizens cannot become law unto themselves…we expect inhabitants of both the States shall behave having regard to the respect for law and order.”
Nariman admitted it was a drafting error but went on to submit that from September 5 to September 12, the State had complied with the court order and released 84,168 cusecs into Mettur Reservoir in Tamil Nadu. He complained that further release of water will lead to severe shortage of drinking water in Karnataka. He sought the court’s direction to be put in “abeyance” until the Supervisory Committee, headed y the secretary of the Water Resources Ministry, decides on the quantum of water to be shared between the two States.
The Bench decided to hear the issue on September 20 and till such time directed Karnataka to continue supplying water to Tamil Nadu to save the samba crops on 40,000 acre. However, it reduced the daily water supply from 15,000 to 12,000 cusecs, although Karnataka wished for only 1,000 cusecs.