SC rejects Karnataka’s plea to withhold Cauvery scheme

New Delhi/Bengaluru: The Supreme Court has refused the appeal of the Karnataka government to stall the Cauvery management scheme planned by the Centre. Senior advocate Shyam Divan had asked the SC to postpone the hearing to July first week, due to the uncertainty in the formation of the Karnataka government. “The government formation is going on. We too want to give suggestions on the draft scheme like the other States. This scheme will be effective on us for 15 years. We have a right to say something,” he said in the court.

Senior counsel for Tamil Nadu, Shekhar Naphade, pointed out that it was wrong to say that there was no government in Karnataka right now. He said that it would not be possible to wait till July for the hearing since the first release of water from the Cauvery is scheduled in June. Consequently, the apex court did not listen to the appeal of Divan but agreed to four changes suggested by the State in the draft Cauvery management scheme of 2018. Chief Justice Dipak Misra also directed the Centre to incorporate the changes into the draft scheme within the next 24 hours.

The Bench opposed one of the provisions in the draft scheme which provided the power of having the final word in inter-State disputes over the issue to the Centre. The Chief Justice said that the Central Government’s authority is not final and that it had to abide by the judgement of the SC in such matters.

Legal representatives of Tamil Nadu, senior advocates Shekhar Naphade, Rakesh Dwivedi and advocate G. Umapathy took offence to another provision which directs the Cauvery authority to abide by all directions given by the Central Government. They observed that the provision was “too broad” and requested the court to address it.

The court also agreed with Tamil Nadu on the point that the headquarters of the Cauvery authority should be in New Delhi, rather than in Bengaluru, as suggested by the draft scheme. Naphade suggested that the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee that is in charge of the day-to-day functioning of the Cauvery water management scheme could be based in Bengaluru. He also insisted that the Cauvery authority should be called the ‘Cauvery Management Board’.

Tamil Nadu made another proposition that the chairman of the Cauvery authority should be an ‘independent person’ such as a retired judge, instead of an engineer or an IAS officer, as suggested in the scheme. This proposal was rejected by the court. In the previous hearing, the court had asked the Centre to provide the draft scheme copies to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry so as to check if it agrees with the February 16 judgement of the Supreme Court.