Cauvery water row: SC modifies Sept 5 order, asks Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu

The Supreme Court on Monday modified its previous ruling on sharing of Cauvery river water and directed the Karnataka govt to release 12,000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu daily till September 20.

New Delhi: In a major development, the Supreme Court on Monday modified its previous ruling on sharing of Cauvery river water and directed the Karnataka government to release 12,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu daily till September 20.

The apex court passed the order in response to an appeal filed by the Karnataka government seeking a direction to reduce the quantum of water to be released from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu from 15,000 cusecs to 10,000 cusecs.

The order was passed by an apex court bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Deepak Mishra.

The apex court, however, expressed its displeasure over non-implementation of its earlier order on Cauvery water sharing by the Karnataka government.

Citizens and executive of this country have to accept and obey order of the SC unless it is modified, Justice Dipak Misra observed.

If the court passes an order, either comply or come for modification. People cannot take law into their hand, Justice Misra said.  

In its plea, Karnataka had sought modification of the apex court's September 5 order for release of 15,000 cusecs of water for 10 days as immediate relief to Tamil Nadu farmers.

As the Karnataka government decided to move the Supreme Court, the Cauvery Supervisory Committee is also scheduled to meet today to decide on the quantum of the river's water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states.

The Karnataka govt application had sought that instead of 10 days, the apex court should restrict the release of water to only 6 as the state itself was facing a distress situation due to a massive agitation which was causing a loss of Rs 500 crore per day to Karnataka.

In the plea, Karnataka had said there was "huge public pressure" and the state police, with great difficulty, have been able to prevent attempts to damage public property.

The application said that people, particularly farmers in the districts of Mysuru, Hassan, Mandya and Bengaluru, have been squatting on the roads and streets, affecting the IT industry in the state capital which earns huge revenue by way of income tax, service tax, and foreign exchange of USD 60 billion for the country.

The application also referred to inputs from security agencies that said if the flow of water is allowed to continue further, the situation "may go out of hand".

In an interim order on September 5, the court had directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu for the next 10 days to ameliorate the plight of the farmers there.

The apex court had also directed Tamil Nadu to approach Supervisory Committee, set up to implement the award of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, within three days for release of water as per the final order of the CWDT.