New Delhi: In deference to the demand by Tamil Nadu, the Centre on Wednesday informed in the Supreme Court that it was agreeable for the name ‘Cauvery Management Board’ to implement the February 16 judgment on allocation and distribution of water among the States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry.
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal made this submission before a three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud when senior counsel Shekar Naphade for Tamil Nadu suggested that the authority which has not been named in the ‘draft scheme’ be christened as CMB.
At the outset the CJI refused the plea of senior counsel Shyam Divan to defer the hearing till July, as the government formation in Karnataka is yet to take place. Mr Divan told the court “as this scheme will be effective on us for 15 years. We have a right to say something. Stand this over till the first week of July.”
Mr Naphade opposed the suggestion and said “Constitution does not contemplate a vacuum and it is wrong to say that there is no government in Karnataka now. The court cannot wait till July as the first release of water from Cauvery is scheduled in June.”
