Wrong to defy CRA order: Lawyers

The Karnataka legal team assisting the State government in the Cauvery matter is understood to have been disappointed with the stand taken by Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar not to release any water to Tamil Nadu.

The team is said to have conveyed it to Shettar that he may have erred in staging a walk out from the meeting of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) since it was held under the directions of the Supreme Court.

The CRA, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had directed Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of water to TN daily for 25 days. As he stormed out of the meeting, Shettar’s government filed a review petition before the CRA in which the basin states’ chief ministers are members.

Head of the State legal team and veteran advocate Fali Nariman was said to have spoken to Shettar on Tuesday. The legal team has pointed out to him that it was wrong to defy the direction of the CRA. It would be wise on the part of the State to release water before the review petition comes up for hearing, the legal team reasoned with the chief minister.

A precedent

It also pointed out that it would be difficult to defend the Karnataka stand of defiance before the Supreme Court. Informed sources told Deccan Herald that after taking a similar stand, then Chief Minister S M Krishna was summoned to appear before the apex court which gave him a dressing down. In 2002, which saw a flare up on Cauvery, the apex court had ordered release of 1.25 tmc ft of water to TN which Karnataka refused. Then too the State legal team, comprising of the nearly same members as at present, had advised the government to release some amount of water.

Sources added that the Union Water Resources Ministry has issued notice to the Karnataka chief secretary seeking explanation why the State has not implemented the CRA decision. The CRA has issued notice to TN on the review petition filed by Karnataka.