Today, On 13th November, The Supreme Court declined to intervene in Karnataka’s Mekedatu Reservoir Project along the Cauvery river, with a bench led by Chief Justice BR Gavai dismissing Tamil Nadu’s appeal, which claimed the project could reduce its allocated share of Cauvery water.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has chosen not to intervene in the Mekedatu Reservoir Project proposed by the Karnataka government along the Cauvery river.
A bench led by Chief Justice BR Gavai dismissed the appeal from the State of Tamil Nadu opposing the reservoir project in Kanakapura Taluk, located on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border.
Tamil Nadu argues that the reservoir could detract from its allocated share of Cauvery water.
Earlier in February, the Union government clarified that it had not granted any permission for the construction of new dams across the Cauvery river.
In a written response to a query in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Raj Bhushan Choudhary, stated that no approval had been provided for any new dam.
In response to Tamil Nadu MP S Kalyanasundaram’s question regarding the rights of lower riparian states, Choudhary noted that the Cauvery Water Management Authority and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee were established following Supreme Court guidelines to ensure compliance with the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, which covers aspects like storage, distribution, regulation, and control of Cauvery water.
The Supreme Court remarked that Tamil Nadu’s challenge against the Central Water Commission’s (CWC) directive to prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Mekedatu dam was “premature.”
The bench explained that the project would only receive approval after addressing objections from Tamil Nadu and considering feedback from expert bodies, such as the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) and the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA).
The court emphasized,
“It to be noted that the CWC had further directed that the prior approval of the CWMA and CWRC would be a prerequisite for the consideration of the DPR. In that view of the matter, we find the present application to be premature.”
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court also declined to interfere with a CWMA order directing Karnataka to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha, and Prashant Kumar Mishra stated that the CWMA and CWRC, comprising experts in water resource management, had taken into account this year’s water shortfall before issuing their order.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing Tamil Nadu, informed the court that the project would harm farmers in Tamil Nadu who rely on Cauvery water for their livelihoods.
He further argued that the reservoir is situated at a higher altitude than where Tamil Nadu receives its water, which would negatively impact the flow to the downstream state.
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