The Tamil Nadu government chose to withdraw its application seeking the services of a “neutral” central force like the CISF over the Kerala Police to protect the Mullaperiyar dam after the Supreme Court made it quite clear that the apex court cannot become a “perennial” stage for the two neighbouring States to fight about the dam.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur said the top court has already passed a decree in the Mullaperiyar dam controversy and applications like this cannot be time and again filed seeking modification of the court’s final decisions.
“Can you ask for modification of the decree in this fashion by filing an application? We can’t keep on entertaining application in disposed of matter. There are no perennial proceedings going on here,” Chief Justice Thakur told senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi for Tamil Nadu. The court, however, gave the State liberty to file a review petition, if necessary.
The court had on December 3, 2014 dismissed Kerala’s review plea against the May, 2014 Constitution Bench verdict wherein the dam was found to be safe.
The court had allowed Tamil Nadu to raise the water level to 142 feet and ultimately to 152 feet after completion of strengthening measures on the dam.
The State had moved the court for CISF security while accusing the Kerala Police of being a “silent spectator” unable to restrict unauthorised persons from entering the dam. It had said the deployment of a central professional force like the CISF/CRPF is “absolutely essential” to keep the dam safe considering the threat perceptions.
Kerala in an affidavit had questioned the “reliability” of an Intelligence Bureau report produced by Tamil Nadu on the dam. Kerala had argued that it had established a separate police station dedicated to provide round-the-clock security to the dam and the Periyar water-spread.
Tamil Nadu had relied on a September 2014 ‘Industrial Security Inspection Report,’ which did not give any specific inputs of terror threats to vital installations, but advised caution against Pakistan-sponsored pan-Islamist terror outfits, “remnant cadres of LTTE” and Naxals. Tamil Nadu accused Kerala of taking an “obstructionist attitude” to its exclusive right of day-to-day management of the dam.
