Janata Dal (S) president and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda on Wednesday said the Supreme Court should have ascertained the water level in the reservoirs in the Cauvery basin and delta before directing Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu.

Addressing the media in Bengaluru, he said it is best for the court to give a ruling only after sending a team to assess the water level in dams in both the states. He said the court had failed to do this even when it passed an order on September 20. “If a commoner can think along these lines, why can’t the court?” he wondered.

He said Karnataka too had a threshold level, and if it were to be pushed to the wall, then it would surely retaliate. Taking a dig at Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, he said that she was extremely adamant that Karnataka release water to her state. She had thanked the court from her hospital bed itself, he pointed out.

Gowda said that when the court could accept the argument that Tamil Nadu had endured crop loss, then why couldn’t it accept Karnataka’s argument that there is no water for drinking, he said. “Is it possible to revive crops in three days?” he sought to know.

To a question, Gowda said he would not attend the meeting convened by the Centre on September 29 in New Delhi to discuss the Cauvery issue as he had not been invited. He said the state legislature had not shown any disrespect to the court by passing a resolution not to release water for any other purpose than drinking.