SC defers hearing on Mekedatu case

The court said the Mekadatu case would come up for hearing on January 25

The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred its hearing a plea related to Mekedatu balancing reservoir project to January 25.

A bench, presided over by Justice A M Khanwilkar, adjourned the matter as it was pointed out the case was wrongly tagged with the Mullaperiyar dam case.

The counsel said the matter should be detagged and listed again. The court said the Mekedatu case would come up for hearing on January 25.

The Tamil Nadu government had filed several pleas, including the one for a direction to the Central Water Commission to reject and return the detailed project report for the proposed Mekedatu balancing reservoir-cum-drinking water project filed by Karnataka on January 18, 2019.

In its application, the state government asked the court to restrain the Ministry of Environment and Forest and its agencies from entertaining any application for clearance relating to the Mekedatu project.

The planning of the Mekedatu project by Karnataka with a capacity of 67.16 TMC ft and generation of 400 MW power at a cost of about Rs 9,000 crore is in gross violation of the decision of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (Tribunal) of February 05, 2007 as affirmed by this court in its judgment on February 16, 2018, it said.

Tamil Nadu claimed that the project was located in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and a Reserve Forest.

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