SC allows discussion on Mekedatu dam project

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the Cauvery Water Management Authority can have a discussion and deliberation with regard to detailed project report of the Mekedatu dam reservoir project but will not formulate any formal opinion on the proposal by the Karnataka government.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Abhay S Oka and J B Pardiwala issued notice to the Authority and others on a plea filed by Tamil Nadu restrain it from passing any direction regarding the detailed project report for the dam.

Appearing for Tamil Nadu, senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi contended that the proposed Mekedatu Reservoir Project of Karnataka is detrimental to the interest of the farmers of Tamil Nadu.

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Senior advocate Shyam Diwan, repreeenting Karnataka submitted that the plea by Tamil Nadu has been filed in a disposed of the matter. He also maintained that there was no question of impacting the flow of the water by the project.

The bench, however, asked, "The question is whether this Authority has jurisdiction to deal with the issue".

Diwan, for his part, asked the court to allow the Authority to deliberate on the subject.

"The projects cannot be stalled like this and of course, they would be subjected to any direction of this court," he said.

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The court said since the matter has been pending since 2018, there would be no difficulty in posting it to the next date of hearing.

"We'll say that the committee can have meetings and have a discussion, but no formulation of any opinion," the bench said, as Rohatgi contended that it was our case that this deliberation is completely out of the jurisdiction.

"The whole attempt is to bypass the judgment of this court," he said.

The court posted the matter for consideration on Tuesday.

Also Read | Mekedatu concerns farmers’ livelihood: Tamil Nadu tells Bommai

The Tamil Nadu government had filed several pleas, including 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 9000 crores is in gross violation of the decision of the 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 Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and a Reserve Forest.