: The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing on a plea filed by the Karnataka government, which informed the Court of its inability to release 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to the neighbouring State of Tamil Nadu.
While adjourning the hearing to January 4, the Court asked Karnataka to maintain status quo till then and continue to supply 2,000 cusecs.
The hearing, scheduled for 3.30 pm before a Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra, did not take place as one of the members of the Bench, Justice Khanwilkar, was sitting in a combination with the Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur.
Karnataka had moved an application that the cumulative water storage in all its four reservoirs of the Cauvery basin stood at just 15.92 tmcft as on December 11. It said the present storage level was not even adequate enough to meet its own drinking water requirements.
Considering the situation, which owes largely to the failure of northeast monsoon, the State said it was impossible to release 2,000 cusecs of water a day to Tamil Nadu as directed by the Supreme Court.
On December 9, the Supreme Court dismissed the Centre’s stand that it had no jurisdiction to hear the Cauvery river dispute.
The Court had upheld its constitutional power to hear the appeals filed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala against the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s final award in 2007.
It had then said the interim order to Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu would continue till further orders.
