: Kerala has said the Periyar is an inter-State river flowing in its territory, and not an intra-State river, and the observation of the five-judge Constitution Bench that part of the catchments below the Mullaperiyar dam lay in Tamil Nadu has no relevance to the status of the river.
The State made the remarks in its petition in the Supreme Court for a review of the May 7 verdict quashing its law to prevent Tamil Nadu from raising the water level in the dam from 136 feet to 142 feet.
The petition said both banks of the Periyar lay in Kerala, and the river’s entire length of 244 km was within its territory. The finding that the 1886 lease deed was valid and binding on Kerala and it was enforceable by Tamil Nadu “suffers from manifest errors of law…”
It said the court erred in injuncting Kerala after holding that Tamil Nadu would suffer injury if storage was not raised above 136 feet. “Tamil Nadu witness admitted that water drawal during the pre-1979 period was 19,277 million cubic feet (mcft), while in the post-1979 period, it was 21,434 mcft. But, your lordships have held that two lakhs acres of drought areas needs to be irrigated. Whether Tamil Nadu requires more water or not for irrigating its two lakh acres of drought areas is a dispute to be adjudicated by a tribunal under the Inter State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.”
“Even after the increase from 136 feet to 142 feet, the benefits to Tamil Nadu will be very minimal, 0.5262 tmcft annually (which may irrigate 5,600 acres),” it said.
On the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) relied on by the Empowered Committee, it said the Central Water Commission neither submitted its study on PMF to the Co-ordination Committee, nor did the Co-ordination Committee discuss this issue at its final meeting held on August 2, 2011. “Therefore, Kerala submits that it got no opportunity to assess the veracity or correctness of the CWC studies on PMF. If the study is not submitted to the co-ordination committee, the question of the Kerala representative getting any opportunity to supervise or comment on the studies does not arise at all” it said.
On the finding that a new dam could not be thrust upon Tamil Nadu, the State said: “The court has observed that the proposals of the Empowered Committee are worthy of consideration. Having so observed, it is submitted that, directions on the new dam are fully justified and under Article142 of the Constitution for doing complete justice.”
Kerala said it reserved the right to seek a stay on the operation of the May 7 ruling.
