Cauvery water row: Karnataka govt asks Centre to set up CMB before Oct 4
New Delhi: Karnataka once again flouted the orders of the Supreme Court and filed a petition on Saturday seeking review of the direction issued on Friday to the Centre to set up Cauvery Management Board on or before October 4.
The States of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Union Territory of Puducherry were directed to nominate their representatives to the CMB by 4 pm today. While others have complied with the order and sent names of their representatives to the Union Water Resources Ministry, Karnataka did not nominate its representative in view of the filing of the review petition and thus defied the apex court order.
In its review petition, Karnataka said the apex Court’s orders have resulted in miscarriage of justice. The court has committed an error in directing the Union of India to constitute CMB without considering the that a three-judge Bench was to hear the appeals against the final award of the Cauvery Tribunal and the setting up of CMB is one such issue before this Bench.
Karnataka pointed out that there was no mandate to constitute the Cauvery Management Board as such a direction could not have been issued to the Central Government by the
Tribunal, since the Central Government was not a party to the Water Dispute before the Tribunal. Therefore, this Court has erred in directing the Central Government to constitute a Cauvery Management Board relying on the recommendations of the Tribunal which are subject matter of Appeals pending before this Court.
By its orders on September 20 and 30 in relation to CMB, the apex court has not taken cognizance of the fact that the constitution of the Board, being Legislative in character, depends upon the authority exercising the power as well as the nature of the function and obligation arising from the Legislation.
Under these circumstances, this Court ought not to have exercised the writ of mandamus to constitute Cauvery Management Board, the state said. This court has also erred in directing release of 6,000 cusecs of water to TN on September 27 and 30 when the present live storage of water in the four reservoirs of Karnataka is insufficient even to meet the drinking water requirement of Bangalore City, Towns and Villages etc, it added.
Invoking Article 21 of the Constitution (right to life which includes right to drinking water), Karnataka said the right to drinking water is a basic need for survival of human being and further releases to Tamil Nadu will affect the drinking water requirements.
As per the National Water Policy 2012, the first priority is for the drinking water than the irrigation. By directing further releases, this Court is giving importance to the irrigation requirements of the State of Tamil Nadu than the drinking water requirement of the State of Karnataka, it said.
If this Court had considered the priority for drinking water, it would not have ordered further release water on September 20, 27 and 30 from the reservoirs of Karnataka as it would cause irreparable injury to Karnataka i.e. once the release are made from the reservoirs of Karnataka, the water cannot be retrieved in case of good normal North-East monsoon.
