The Supreme Court will open on a holiday on Monday to hear the Karnataka government’s plea to modify an order directing it to share Cauvery water with distressed neighbour Tamil Nadu.
Karnataka had approached the Supreme Court registrar at his residence a few hours before midnight on Saturday with an urgent plea for an intervention, in the backdrop of the turmoil and public unrest in the State after the Supreme Court order on September 5 to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. On Sunday, the file was placed before Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur, who referred it for hearing to Justice Dipak Misra’s Bench that passed the September 5 order.
Karnataka said 66,000 cusecs had been released between September 5 and 10 to Tamil Nadu as a goodwill gesture. It said the water was for storage purposes in Tamil Nadu while Karnataka was reeling under a drinking water crisis. Its application said the order caused a great distress to the public and farmers of Karnataka. It said the Samba region of Tamil Nadu had sufficient supply of groundwater.
The court had ordered Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs for 10 days to feed parched farmland of Tamil Nadu in the “interests of justice”. The decision came shortly after the court had urged Karnataka to embrace the principle of “live and let live.”
