Supreme Court slams Karnataka for refusing to obey order

The Supreme Court on Friday slammed the Karnataka government for flouting its order passed on September 27 to release 6,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu, and thus creating a situation where the majesty of law is dented.

A bench of justices Dipak Misra and Uday Lalit described as unfortunate the defiance of Karnataka, and reiterated its order and directed the state to release 6,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu for six days from October 1 to 6, when the matter will be taken up again for consideration.

The bench said, “We are granting this opportunity as the last chance and we repeat at the cost of repetition that we are passing this order despite the resolution passed by the Joint Houses of State Legislature of the State of Karnataka. We are sure that the state... will rise to the occasion and not show any kind of deviancy and follow the direction till the report on the ground reality is made available to this court.”

The bench took note when senior counsel Fali Nariman said he won’t make any submission for Karnataka as it had not obeyed the orders. Shekhar Naphade, senior counsel appearing for Tamil Nadu, submitted that he does not intend to argue further, for any order that is passed is possibly not going to be obeyed by Karnataka.

With Karnataka insisting on inspecting the reservoirs in both the states to assess the ground realities, the bench directed Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi to ensure that the Cauvery Management Board is constituted on or before October 4. The bench asked the Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry to nominate their representatives to the CMB by 4 pm on Saturday to enable the Centre to set up the board by Tuesday. The bench asked the CMB to study the ground reality and submit its report on October 6.

Referring to Karnataka’s defiance, the bench said, “On a plain reading of Article 144 of the Constitution, it is as crystal clear that all authorities in the territory of India are bound to act in aid of the Supreme Court. Needless to say, they are bound to obey the orders... but, unfortunately, Karnataka is flouting the order and, in fact, creating a situation where the majesty of law is dented.”

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on October 6.