New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu till final orders are passed on the batch of appeals challenging the award of the Cauvery River Water Tribunal.
A three-judge Bench gave this direction while posting the appeals for final hearing from February 7, after brief submissions from senior counsel Fali Nariman for Karnataka, Shekar Naphade for Tamil Nadu, Nambiar for Puducherry and Jaideep Gupta for Kerala.
Rejecting TN's plea to first take up the issue of setting up of the Cauvery Management Board to implement the directions of the Cauvery Water disputes Tribunal given in February 2007, the Bench said it will dispose of the appeals as it did not want to deal with the issue piecemeal.
Mr. Nariman and counsel Mohan Katarki said that from October last water was being released to TN and the deficit would only be around 11,000 cusecs of water. The Bench directed Karnataka to continue the release till the matter was decided.
The Bench made it clear that even if it were to come to a conclusion that the allocation of water has not been made on equitable basis by the Tribunal, it will not remand the matter back to the Tribunal. The Bench said it will endeavour to determine the allocation based on facts to be furnished by the respective States.
