The State Of Tamil Nadu vs The State Of Karnataka

4. The 1st Defendant has taken up five different works in the Pennaiyar river Basin of Karnataka, affecting the natural flows of the river namely,

iii. A large amount of materials collections are seen in the upstream of the dam.

iv. Pumping station works are progressing.”

8. In the rejoinder to the statement of objection and in sur-rejoinder thereto, the parties reiterated their respective stands.

d) About 75% to 80% of construction work was already completed which was undertaken after due sanctions and permissions from the concerned authorities. The steps in that behalf were undertaken from the year 2013 onwards and the instant application preferred by the plaintiff suffered from delay and laches.

e) Considering the length of the Inter State River, 75% of the basin including the catchment area is in the State of Tamil Nadu and the projects undertaken by the first defendant would not cause any prejudice to the plaintiff.

13. The rival contentions advanced by the parties touching upon merits of the matter including maintainability of the suit will certainly be gone into after the parties are allowed opportunity to lead evidence in accordance with law and to make appropriate submissions. At this juncture we are called upon to consider whether pending consideration of the present suit, any interim directions are required to be passed.

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49. Coming to the question of grant of interim order during the interregnum, I am satisfied that unless some interim protection is given till the constitution of the Water Disputes Tribunal by the Central Government, the objection raised by the State of Orissa will be rendered infructuous, which certainly is not the intention of the 1956 Act.

52. I, accordingly, allow the writ petition and direct the Central Government to constitute a Water Disputes Tribunal within a period of six months from the date and to refer to it the dispute relating to the construction of the Side Channel Weir and Flood Flow Canal Project at Katragada on River Vansadhara by the State of Andhra Pradesh for diversion of the waters of the said river which could adversely affect the supply of water from the said river to the State of Orissa.

53. I also direct that pending constitution of the Water Disputes Tribunal and reference of the above dispute to it, the State of Andhra Pradesh will maintain status quo as of date with regard to the construction of the side channel weir and the flood flow canal at Katragada. Once the Tribunal is constituted the parties will be free to apply for further interim orders before the Tribunal.” The second case dealt with the maintainability of a Writ Petition by the concerned Writ Petitioners.

It is not as if that there was lack of proper legal opinion in the matter. The State would normally be guided by expert legal advice in such matters. It is also possible to say that in a given case, a State may not be inclined to have any Inter State River Water Disputes Tribunal to be constituted and would therefore consciously avoid any direct request asking for such constitution of the Tribunal. There could be variety of reasons. It will not therefore be correct on our part to infer such an idea from the communications addressed by the plaintiff to the second defendant and then find second defendant to be at fault for not constituting a Tribunal under the Act.

19. In the circumstances all we can do at this stage is to permit the plaintiff to make an appropriate application invoking the powers of the Central Government in terms of the provisions of the Act and seek constitution of an Inter State River Water Disputes Tribunal. If the plaintiff is so advised, such request may be made within four weeks from the date of this order.

20. Subject to the aforesaid, we see no reason to entertain the present application. I.A. No.95384 of 2019 is therefore dismissed. Let the Suit be listed for further directions on 10th January, 2020.

November 14, 2019.