Earlier, the Centre had set itself a deadline of December

31, 2012 to notify the Cauvery award. In a meeting of the Cauvery Monitoring Committee on December 7 last year, then Secretary Water Resources Dhruv Vijai Singh had told representatives of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Pudducherry that the Centre would bring out the notification by end of month. But with a section in the Law Ministry suggesting that pending court cases could prove to be a hindrance in notifying the February, 2007 award, the Water Resources Ministry decided to hold fresh consultations on legal implications. The matter also came up before the Congress core group amid indications that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would hold more consultations before taking a call. Interestingly, the notification mentions the February 20 deadline set by the Supreme court in notifying the award. "...Since more than five years have elapsed, we direct the Central Government to publish in official gazette the final decision given by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal dated February 5, 2007 as early as may be possible and in no case later than February 20, 2013..." the notification said quoting the SC ruling of February 4.