Cauvery

The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy reported:Supreme Court has differed from the Cauvery Tribunal on fundamental issues: Mohan Katarki | The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy

The Supreme Court of India just finished its work for this year and had an action-packed, if shortened week, the High Courts have been at it, and the organs of Government are all functioning, grinding out laws, rules, guidelines, notifications and much more to govern/rule/harass/intimidate/thieve the populace (delete as per political persuasion). Parliament has... well... you saw how that went.

According to a Right to Information (RTI) response received and reported by Bar & Bench, between 1990 and 2016, the Karnataka Water Resources Department has spent at least Rs 37.5 crore on around 20 lawyers representing it in disputes such as the Cauvery battle, of which 91% (or Rs 34.22 crore) were billed by five senior lawyers alone.

The Cauvery dispute is the most intractable of all the river water disputes, did you say? Think again.

6 October is likely to be the climax in the ongoing Cauvery hearing in the Supreme Court, if one were to interpret today’s outcome in Court No 4 in the afternoon.

So, how did today’s much expected hearing on the Cauvery case go in the Supreme Court?

After three hours of an intense hearing from 2pm today, the Supreme Court bench of justices Dipak Misra and UU Lalit, in an interim order, directed Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu until 27 September.

Even amongst epic legal dramas, the Cauvery river water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka has taken more twists and turns than most, with the Supreme Court’s latest orders asking Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu, provoking violent protests in Karnataka and the imposition of a curfew turning Bangalore it into a ghost town.