Senior advocate Fali Nariman on Tuesday said he faced flak from his client, Karnataka, in the Cauvery case for not restraining the Supreme Court from ordering the release of more water than the State’s reservoirs could possibly afford to spare.
A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U.U. Lalit saw an agitated Mr. Nariman ask them the logic behind their repeated orders to release various thousands of cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, despite Karnataka’s repeated pleas that it was reeling under drinking water crisis and could ill-afford to share water.
The exchange came after the Supreme Court enquired with Karnataka about the amount of water it could release till October 18, even as a technical team visited the Cauvery basin to submit a report on the ground reality there. After a short break in the hearing, Karnataka State Advocate-General M.R. Naik and advocate Mohan Katarki returned to the courtroom with instructions that the State could release not more than 1,500 cusecs for 10 days between October 7 and October 16.
Mr. Nariman suggested that the Bench listen to Mr. Naik and not burden the State by ordering it to release more than 1,500 cusecs.
“I plead with the court to not pass such orders... I came across flak because of such orders... I could not have the State I represent defy this court’s orders, so I refused to make submissions in the last hearing,” Mr. Nariman addressed the Bench. The senior lawyer questioned the court’s logic behind passing orders like ‘Give 15,000 cusecs’, ‘Give 10,000 cusecs’, ‘Give 6,000 cusecs’. “If you give such orders, I would have to go back to my old position not to argue again. Do not embarrass me.”
