Review plea to come later; comply first: Supreme Court to Karnataka

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday told Karnataka to first obey its order to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu before it could hear a review plea against the ruling.

“Nothing can be entertained from a defaulting party. You should comply with our order. First comply,” a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and UU Lalit told Karnataka counsel VN Raghupathy.

But it posted the Cauvery water issue for an urgent hearing on Tuesday at the insistence of the central government, which pointed out a legal hitch in setting up the Cauvery Management Board as directed by the court to immediately give a report on the ground situation.

Instead, the attorney general suggested the formation of a highpowered committee to do the task.

The proposed board was to have gone for an immediate visit and give an assessment of the ground situation to enable the top court to take a call on the veracity of the claims and counterclaims by the two states.

Karnataka says it needs the water for drinking purpose and the state legislature has passed a resolution against any further release of water as ordered by the top court.

The top court had asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi at the last hearing to set up the Cauvery Management Board immediately.

But when the court convened on Monday, the A-G pointed out that it could only be set up by Parliament under an Act and not under court orders.

The A-G conceded that he had made a mistake in agreeing to set it up and cited the instances of laws which had created the Godavari and the Bhakra-Beas management boards.