The Hindu : New Delhi News : Dam case: Supreme Court forms Constitution Bench

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

New Delhi

New Delhi

Dam case: Supreme Court forms Constitution Bench

J. Venkatesan

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan has constituted a five-judge Constitution Bench to hear Tamil Nadu’s suit questioning Kerala’s law to prevent raising water level in the Mullaperiyar dam beyond 136 ft. as against 142 ft. allowed by the Supreme Court judgment of February 2006.

A Bench of Justices D.K. Jain, B. Sudershan Reddy, Mukundakam Sharma, R.M. Lodha and Deepak Verma will have the first sitting on November 23 for directions on the modalities of hearing and to fix the schedule.

On November 10 after hearing counsel for the parties, a three-judge Bench of Justices Jain, Sharma and Lodha in its reference order had said “the contesting parties shall maintain status quo in respect of Mullaperiyar dam as existing today. However, order of status quo will not be an impediment for the plaintiff (State of Tamil Nadu) to carry out maintenance and repairs for proper upkeep of the said dam. It will be open to the parties to apply, could there be an occasion for modification, variation or alteration of the order or need for any fresh order.”

Dam safe: Tamil Nadu

Special Correspondent writes from Chennai: The Mullaperiyar dam is stable and in safe condition, according to a team of senior engineers of the State government. The team comprising engineers of the Dam Safety Directorate inspected the dam on Tuesday and Friday in the wake of reports in certain sections of the media that the Kerala government had claimed that there were seepages in the dam.

The team was of the view that the main dam, the baby dam and the surplus arrangements in the dam were all functioning well. The team’s report stated that the seepage was 58.46 litres per minute when the water level was 135.1 feet. This seepage was well below the permissible limits. The bitumen provided in the construction joints in Blocks 17 and 18 had “slightly come out due to weathering” over the years. “This will be repaired under regular maintenance and there will not be any wetting/dampness in the dam thereafter. Moreover, this dampness has occurred only due to the recent local rains,” the communication said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi