Karnataka to move Supreme Court and Tribunal on Cauvery issue

A day after 22 MPs from Karnataka staged a demonstration outside the Parliament House complex in New Delhi to condemn the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, the Karnataka Government decided to move the Supreme Court over the issue, besides seeking clarificatory orders from the Tribunal.

The Karnataka Cabinet, which met here yesterday, unanimously resolved to file an Original Suit as well as a Special Leave Petition before the Apex court contesting the final award of the Tribunal.

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Karnataka’s Home Minister M P Prakash said the State will also file a review petition before the Tribunal seeking clarifications and guidance on its February 5 order, which allocated 270 tmc feet of water to Karnataka against 419 tmc feet to Tamil Nadu.

Karnataka’s decision to move the Supreme Court over the Tribunal’s final order comes after a panel of legal experts including counsels, who represented the State before the Tribunal. The panel of legal experts comprising noted Supreme Court advocate Fali S Nariman had met in New Delhi recently and faxed its opinion to the office of Karnataka Chief Minister.

Prakash said the Cabinet decided to move the Supreme Court after legal experts and Karnataka’s Advocate General Udaya Holla. Karnataka was required to file petitions before the Tribunal seeking clarifications within 90 days of the pronouncement of the final order.

Karnataka’s decision to move the Supreme Court and the Tribunal comes after several rounds of talks between all-party leaders and representatives of stake-holders like farmers. Thursday’s Cabinet decision is also expected to ease the on-going protests and demonstrations against the Tribunal’s final award in the Cauvery basin districts of Mandya and Mysore.

Meanwhile, according to information reaching here, the Cauvery issue rocked the proceedings of the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, leading to the adjournment of the House for 25 minutes as MPs from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu clashed with each other.

When Karnataka MP Ananthkumar raised the issue during the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address and urged the Federal Government not to notify the Tribunal’s award in the gazette, DMK members strongly protested and asked the Chair to disallow the Karnataka MP from raising the Cauvery issue.