SC to take up Krishna dispute: Legal team clueless

The Karnataka legal team in Delhi is clueless about the state’s strategy to handle the case arising out of Krishna water sharing dispute, which is likely to come up in the Supreme Court next month.

The apex court is likely to hear the special leave petitions challenging the award of the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal (KWDT), which permitted height of Almatti dam up to FRL (full reservoir legal) 524.256 mts and sharing of a surplus of water of Krishna.

Though the apex court bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud was supposed to hear the SLP for final hearing on September 16, it couldn’t do it as he is sitting in Constitution bench hearing Ayodhya matter.

With the Ayodhya hearing scheduled to be completed on October 18, the SLPs on Krishna water dispute are likely to come up for hearing to any day.

The legal team headed by senior counsel Fali S Nariman has represented Karnataka in Supreme Court as well as the tribunals for the last 30 years. However, the team is virtually defunct as it has not received any communications from the state government, sources said.

Even the state government officials do not know about the government’s next move on this issue in the Supreme Court. After the BJP government came into the power in the state, the chief minister is holding Water Resources portfolio.

“All issues related to water disputes are being briefed to the Chief Minister Office. So far we have not received any communication to make a briefing to the legal team in Delhi,” said the officials.

Since the documents run more than 10,000 pages in the dispute, it required minimum a week’s time to brief the advocates and make all prepartion to defend the case in the Supreme Court, said an official from the Water Resources Department.

“For the past one year, there is no contact between the state government and members of legal team in Delhi. No body have contacted us so far,” said a member of a legal team.

The KWDT in 2010 and 2013, had allotted 666 tmcft of water to Maharashtra, 907 tmcft to Karnataka and 1,005 tmcft to undivided Andhra Pradesh.

All the four states-Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have filed petitions in the highest court against the tribunal’s award rising different issues and demanding sharing of excess water.

Lower riparian states Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, which have been opposing the Tribunal order of allowing the Almatti dam up to FRL (full reservoir legal) 524.256 mts from 519 mts, are already busy in holding meetings with their legal teams in national capital. Lower riparian states have also demanded the total reallocation of water among river basin states following change in water requirement after division of Andhra Pradesh.