The Hindu : Karnataka's plea to defer contempt case hearing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2002

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Karnataka's plea to defer contempt case hearing

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI OCT. 22. The Karnataka Government today filed an application to defer the October 24 hearing on two contempt petitions filed by Tamil Nadu against the Karnataka Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, and others in the Supreme Court by two weeks.

In its application, Karnataka said the response to the second petition on which the court issued notice on October 11 involved references to considerable material, events, developments and various particulars and, hence, two weeks time was needed for filing an appropriate response.

However, in deference to the directions of the apex court asking the respondents to file their response by October 22, steps were being taken to file a brief affidavit on October 23.

The application, therefore, said that consideration of the whole matter be deferred. By October end, the position would be clarified by the onset of the north-east monsoon and increased flow into Biligundlu and Mettur and there would be no cause for complaint.

It pointed out that in a crisis situation last year, the issue got resolved by the north-east monsoon as evidenced by the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary's letter dated November 5, 2001, addressed to the Union Water Resources Ministry.

Karnataka would file a detailed affidavit setting out details on how a grave situation had been created in the State on account of the confrontational attitude of Tamil Nadu, its continuous provocative utterances and its failure to cooperate at the Cauvery River Authority meetings.

The State was forced to take strong steps to ensure protection to its inhabitants, including the Tamil people, whose number was considerable, and to prevent serious disturbances of the kind that took place in 1991, resulting in loss of life and property.

With a view to providing fuller details in regard to these actions, it was necessary to collect relevant material and place it before the court, the application said, and sought two weeks time to file a proper affidavit and, in the meanwhile, to defer the hearing.

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