In a sudden volta facie, the Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that there was no proposal to refer to a new tribunal the dispute raised by the state of Telangana questioning the apportionment of water by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-2. In an affidavit filed before a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C. Pant, the Centre through additional solicitor-general Tushar Mehta said the matter has already been referred to the Krishna tribunal to resolve the dispute between AP and Telangana without disturbing the project-wise allocation of water to the other states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. It said that Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act itself stipulates that the existing Krishna Tribunal-2 would be the competent authority to determine the share of AP and Telangana and that there should not be any disturbance in the allocation made to Karnataka and Maharashtra and there was no need for a fresh tribunal to resolve disputes between AP and Telangana.
The bench was hearing petitions challenging the Krishna water disputes tribunal-2 award on allocation of water among the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The stand taken by the Centre today was contrary to what the counsel for the Centre, senior advocate V. Mohana told the court on December 3. The advocate had said that the water resources minister had signed the file for setting up of a fresh tribunal.
Earlier senior counsel C.S. Vaidynathan, appearing for Telangana, submitted that under the law the Centre was to take a decision within one year for setting up a new Tribunal. He said the Union of India had a statutory obligation to refer the dispute to a new tribunal.
