Hyderabad: After considering the views of the four states and the Centre over the objections on appointment of former Karnataka High Court judge Justice Ram Mohan Reddy as Member of Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal, its chairman Justice Brijesh Kumar set aside the objections and decided to continue its hearings.
For the second consecutive day on Wednesday, the Tribunal heard the opinions of party states AP, TS, Maharashtra and the Union government which submitted that it was for the Tribunal chairman to take a final view as they do not have any objections if Justice Ram Mohan Reddy, a native of Karnataka, continues as the panel’s member. After this Justice Kumar ordered setting aside the objections of the Karnataka government and closed the issue.
Later, the Tribunal asked the states to summarise their arguments over what should constitute the terms of references cited in AP Reorganisation Act. It asked whether allocations made earlier by the Tribunal shall be relooked due to bifurcation of AP or the allocation made to undivided AP be re-distributed among the residuary states of TS and AP.
On Wednesday afternoon, counsel for Karnataka summarised the arguments on behalf of that state, saying that there was no need to reopen and redistribute the allocations already announced by the Tribunal in 2010 (Provisional) and 2013 (Final). Arguments by AP and TS would commence on Thursday.
