Supreme Court asks Kerala not utilise more water than given under Cauvery award

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Kerala to write to Tamil Nadu government stating that it has no intention to utilise Cauvery water more than what has been allocated to it under the award by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.

The bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Amitava Roy and Justice AM Khanwilkar asked Kerala to write to Tamil Nadu that it had no intention to draw more water than what had been allocated to it under the tribunal award.

Kerala will send the communication stating its position in a fortnight.

"We think it is seemly that the State of Kerala shall send a communication within a fortnight stating what it has expressed before this court," the bench said in its order after senior counsel Jaideep Gupta told the court that Kerala had no intentions to consume more water than that had been allocated to it under the award.

Gupta further told the court that the constructions, which were being raised or likely to be raised would be only for the purpose of utilisation of the water that had been allocated.

Kerala said this in response to an application by Tamil Nadu that it (Kerala) should not utilise the water more than what had been allocated to it by the award under challenge and also to stop certain constructions.

The court asked Kerala to send a communication to the Tamil Nadu government stating its position after senior counsel Shekhar Naphade urged the court to direct the same.

Gupta appeared for Kerala and Naphade for Tamil Nadu.

Directing the listing of the matter for final hearing on July 11, the bench said that its January 4 order directing Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu every day would continue.