The Kerala government on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking review of the May 7 verdict quashing a law enacted by the State to prevent Tamil Nadu from raising the water level in the Mullaperiyar dam from 136 ft to 142 ft.
In its review petition filed through counsel M.R. Ramesh Babu and settled by counsel Mohan Katarki, the State faulted the judgment on various grounds and said it suffered from fundamental and erroneous assumption that the Tamil Nadu government became the successor to the 1886 agreement between the then Madras Presidency and the princely State of Travancore.
It said “if the Standstill Agreement partakes political character, the enforcement of the said agreement is barred by proviso to Articles 131 and 363 of the Constitution. If the Standstill Agreement is not enforceable, the lease deed of 1886 is also not enforceable since the said lease deed was continued to be in force even after 15.08.1947 by reason of standstill agreement. If this error is not corrected by your lordships, it would cause irreparable injury to the rights and interests of the petitioner defendant State of Kerala as well as its inhabitants.”
Panel appraisalKerala said “non-disclosure and non-supply of the investigations, tests and studies (ITS) by the Empowered Committee headed by former Chief Justice of India A.S. Anand is contrary to the rules of natural justice and fair procedure violating Article 14 of the Constitution and therefore its appraisals and conclusions on the safety of the Mullaperiyar dam are also of no legal consequence.”
It said “the Empowered Committee submitted its report to this court on 23.04.2012 along with ITS conducted by it. Kerala was not given any opportunity to lead the evidence or to cross-examine the authors of the study. Even the ITS were not disclosed to the party States, which is a violation of natural justice.” Kerala pleaded for oral hearing of the review petition, as normally such petitions are heard in the judge’s chamber.
