Cauvery Water: Supreme Court Declines To Pass Directions To Karnataka On Tamil Nadu's Plea; Asks For CWMA Report Citing 'Lack Of Expertise'

A 3-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and PK Mishra today (25 August) declined to issue any directives to Karnataka asking it to release Cauvery water on a plea by Tamil Nadu.

Saying that the Court does not have expertise in the matter, it sought a report from the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) regarding the amount of water released by Karnataka and whether its directions were complied with by the state.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the centre informed the Court that a meeting of the Authority to decide the amount of water to be released for the next fortnight is scheduled for Monday (28 August).

The Court then scheduled the next hearing for Friday (1 September).

In its reply to the plea by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka had submitted that the current year is a "distress year" and so it could not be expected to share the same amount of water as in a year with normal rainfall.

Tamil Nadu had sought the release of 24000 cusecs for the remainder of the month (from 14 August) and make up for the shortfall of 28.849 TMC from 1 June to 31 July. It has also asked the Court to ensure that Karnataka releases 36.76 TMC in September as per the award of the Cauvery Tribunal which was modified by the Supreme Court in 2018.