The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed as “misconceived” a public interest litigation petition for a directive to the Tamil Nadu government to drain water to the extent possible from the Mullaperiyar dam and decommission it to protect the right to life of 5 million people, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
After hearing counsel P.V. Dinesh, a Bench of Justices D.K. Jain and Anil R. Dave dismissed the petition filed by the All-Kerala Anti-Corruption and Human Rights Protection Council, represented by its president Issac Varghese and other villagers from that area.
The petitioners said the Centre was not taking any steps to address the issue of safety.
They wanted a directive to the authorities concerned to put in place the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) urgently and a mechanism for relief and rehabilitation of people living downstream of the Mullaperiyar.
Referring to this prayer, Justice Jain told Mr. Dinesh: “What do you mean by saying that the NDMA, headed by the Prime Minister, is not alive to the threat? Do you think that the Prime Minister is not alive to the problems and is not aware of what is happening? It [NDMA] is a statutory authority, and it has an obligation. Why do you think that the authority headed by the Prime Minister will not act if something happens?”
