The Supreme Court’s Tuesday direction to the Centre to constitute Cauvery Management Board (CMB) within four weeks appears to be an order in conflict with an earlier decision taken by a larger Bench of the apex court to hear the plea of Tamil Nadu for constitution of CMB, along with main appeal against the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s award.
A few legal experts are said to have pointed out to the government that a three-judge Bench had decided to hear the plea for constitution of CMB along with the main appeals against the tribunal’s order. This being the position, a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court [which on Tuesday directed the Centre to constitute CMB] could not have issued the direction for constitution of CMB when the matter was pending before a larger bench, a former A-G said.
The former A-G, however, said pendency of a plea for constitution of CMB before a larger Bench should have been brought to the notice of the two-judge Bench and it was not clear whether such an argument was presented before the court on Tuesday.
