JOIN USLegal team will decide on filing review plea: CM Siddaramaiah on Cauvery
Karnataka will decide whether or not to file a review petition on the final judgement of the Supreme Court on sharing of the Cauvery water, after another round of consultation with the legal team, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Thursday.
Siddaramaiah, who chaired an all-party meeting to discuss the apex court's verdict in the inter-state Cauvery water sharing dispute, told reporters that it was unanimously agreed that the decision to file a review petition should be left to the legal team's discretion. March 18 is the deadline for filing the review petition.
"Our stand is the stand of the legal team. In today's meeting, it was unanimously agreed that it will be left for the legal team to decide whether the state should file a review petition or not," the chief minister said.
Also, the Opposition has categorically objected to the constitution of the Cauvery Management Board. The Supreme Court has said that a dispute redressal mechanism has to be evolved by the Centre under 6A of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act, within six weeks.
"There is no clarity on the kind of a mechanism that will be formulated by the Centre -- its composition, function and powers. The Centre has convened a meeting of the chief secretaries of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala tomorrow. We will submit our stand," he said.
Siddaramaiah said that following the all-party meeting, another round of meeting would be held by the legal and technical teams headed by senior counsel Fali S Nariman, Shyam Divan and Karnataka's advocate general Madhusudhan Naik.
"We will discuss with the legal team and make our stand before the Centre tomorrow," he added.
Water Resources Minister M B Patil said that Karnataka would air its concerns and also seek clarifications during the meeting convened by the Union Water Resources Ministry with regard to the formulation of the dispute redressal mechanism
The meeting was attended by floor leaders of both the Legislative Assembly and Council, and MPs and legislators from the Cauvery basin.
After the meeting, JD(S) MLA Y S V Datta said that his party's stand was that Karnataka should file a review petition. "The recent verdict was not favourable to the state. The meeting called by the Centre tomorrow was upon JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda's insistence. The government should make good use of the opportunity. Karnataka should file a review petition as it deserves a higher allocation of water," he added.
As per the Supreme Court's recent verdict, Karnataka got an additional allocation of 14.75 tmc of water.