By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Monday clarified that its Sep 28 order directing Karnataka to implement Cauvery River Authority’s (CRA) order to release 9,000 cusecs of river water will not come in the way of the prime minister taking a decision on the application seeking review of the order to release water to Tamil Nadu.
The apex court bench of Justice D.K Jain and Justice Madan B. Lokur, while clarifying, said: “Our order of Sep 28 shall not in anyway be an impediment in the way of chairman CRA (Prime Minister) to take decision on review application by the Karnataka government.”
The prime minister is the ex-officio chairman of CRA.
However, Justice Jain, pointing to the ongoing protest in Karnataka, told senior counsel Fali Nariman, who is heading Karnataka’s legal team on the issue, that “all these agitations don’t serve any purpose. Sometimes they may spoil a good case”.
The Supreme Court Sep 28 had directed Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water everyday to Tamil Nadu. Protests erupted in parts of the state against the court decision.
The prime minister as the head of CRA, in his Sep 19 order, had asked Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu from Sep 20 through to Oct 15. Since Karnataka did not obey the CRA ruling, the Supreme Court Sep 28 rapped the state and directed it to release the water.
Karnataka is releasing 9,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu from Sep 29, a move which has led to daily protests in Bangalore and Cauvery basin districts of Mandya, Mysore and Chamarajanagar.