Cauvery River Water dispute: Supreme Court to hear Tamil Nadu’s plea

The Supreme Court while hearing an application related to the release of Cauvery River water from Karnataka said that it will hear the State of Tamil Nadu’s application on August 25, seeking fresh directions for the same. Earlier, the matter was mentioned for urgent listing before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Monday whereas CJI assured that he will list the Cauvery River water dispute soon. While mentioning the matter before CJI, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi along with Additional Advocate General Amit Anand Tiwari urged that the plea was urgent. Mukul Rohatgi further submitted that “This is an urgent plea for the release of Cauvery water for August as per the Cauvery Water Management Authority order…Your Lordships have to constitute a Bench. The last one was headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar [who has since retired].” responding to this, CJI said, “Today itself I will constitute a Bench.” Justice PS Narasimha, Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, and Justice BR Gavai will hear the state’s application. 

Earlier on August 14, the Tamil Nadu government moved the Supreme Court seeking directions for the release of 24,000 cusecs of Cauvery water from Karnataka reservoirs at Billigundulu starting from 14 August. The State of Tamil Nadu urged that the release of water was important to meet the demands of the standing crops. Also, they urged the top Court to ensure the release of water for the month of September 2023. The application filed by the Tamil Nadu state illustrated that “Unfortunately, even this quantum of water was arbitrarily reduced to 10,000 cusecs by the CWMA in its 22nd meeting held on August 11 at the instance of Karnataka. Regretfully, even this amount of 10,000 cusecs to be ensured at Billigundulu by releasing such quantum of water from the KRS and Kabini reservoirs has not been compiled with by Karnataka.” Hearing the contentions, the SC ordered to list the matter on August 25 and ensured to constitute a bench for the same.