SC to hear plea for Cauvery Management Board in January

The Supreme Court Tuesday declined to hold an urgent hearing of Tamil Nadu government's plea seeking setting up of Cauvery Management Board for the effective implementation of final order of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal.

Holding that there was "no urgency" to hold an immediate hearing of the plea, a bench of Justice R.M. Lodha, Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph said that the state government's plea could be taken up together with the hearing of pleas challenge to the tribunal's award both by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The cross petitions challenging the award are likely to come up for hearing in January next year.

Asking Karnataka to file its reply to the plea for setting up a Cauvery Management Board, the court asked Tamil Nadu not to nurture any apprehension about the irrigation project being considered by Karnataka.

The court said that it has already put in place an ad-hoc arrangement to discharge the role of Cauvery Management Board and the court was there to look into it if it was not working.

It said that Tamil Nadu's misgivings that Karnataka project would be at the cost of Cauvery water sharing between the two was misplaced adding that irrigation schemes takes long time to complete.

Tamil Nadu is objecting to Karnataka's proposed hydro-power station at Mekedatu for which three reservoirs were planned across Cauvery river.

As Justice Lodha sought to allay Tamil Nadu's apprehensions on the affect of irrigation project on the water sharing between it and Karnataka, the central government told the court that it had not given clearance to any such irrigation project.

Urging Tamil Nadu government not to be obsessed with the setting up of the board, Justice Lodha said that God has taken care of water by the good monsoon that Tamil Nadu had. The court counseled Tamil Nadu that everything that happens in Kaernataka should not trigger its anxiety.