Delay in Krishna Tribunal final award publication causes damage to state: Karnataka in Supreme Court

Karnataka told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that delay in publication of the final award of the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal has caused severe damage to the state as it was unable to irrigate 3.5 lakh hectare of land under Upper Krishna Project State-III in drought prone Kalyana Karnataka region.

When a plea from Karnataka for early publication of the final award of the Tribunal came up for hearing in the Apex Court bench consisting of Justice Surya Kant and Justice JB Pardiwal, the proceedings witnessed heated exchanges between counsel for Karnataka and Maharashtra on one side and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on the other side.

Senior Advocate Mohan Katarki representing Karnataka submitted that the state has been allocated 174 tmc of surplus water and in which, 65 tmc is used immediately to irrigate 3.5 lakh hectares of land in drought prone areas, no prejudice will be caused to downstream states- Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

He further submitted that special leave petition (SLP) under Article 136 of Constitution against the Award of the Tribunal are permissible only on limited grounds of jurisdictional errors and therefore, the Award allocating 174 tmc of surplus water to Karnataka is likely to sustain the challenge mounted by Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Senior Advocate for Maharashtra Deepak Nargolkar joined Karnataka’s plea and submitted that Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been dragging the matter for a decade on one or the other reason and therefore, publication of the Award is necessary.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on December 6.

Karnataka had filed a plea before the Supreme Court in September 2021 seeking early publication of the final Award of Second Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal which was delivered on November 29, 2013.

Senior Advocate for Telangana C S Vaidyanathan submitted that if the Award is notified and water at 50% dependability is distributed during the pendency of special leave petition challenging the validity of the Award, the downstream Telangana will suffer irreparably.

Telangana earlier filed a petition before the court seeking reallocation of Krishna water as new state Telengana was created after bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. However, Karnataka, while opposing re-allocation of entire Krishna water, suggested that erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh's quota water should be shared between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.