New bench of Supreme Court to hear TN’s plea for Cauvery water on Aug 25

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Tamil Nadu’s plea for the release of its quota of Cauvery river water from Karnataka on Friday (August 25), with the top court setting up a special bench for the purpose on Tuesday.

The bench will be headed by Justice B R Gavai, and it will comprise Justices P S Narasimha and Prashant Kumar Mishra. 

Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, on Monday, said he would set up a separate bench to hear the cases. 

The new bench was set up as the last one was headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar and he has retired.

This is the first time Tamil Nadu approached the Apex Court, seeking direction to Karnataka to release Cauvery water after the 2018 judgement, in which the top court allocated water among river basin states, modifying the final award of the 2007 Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal.

Tamil Nadu last week moved the Supreme Court, seeking a direction to Karnataka to release 24,000 cusec of Cauvery water daily forthwith from its reservoirs at Biligundlu for the remaining period of the month, starting from August 14.  

Karnataka, at the meeting of the Cauvery Water Management Authority held on August 10, had expressed inability to release water due to low storage in its reservoirs in view of the poor monsoon.

Tamil Nadu has urged the court to direct Karnataka to ensure stipulated releases for August and September as per the Cauvery Tribunal’s award as modified by the Supreme Court in 2018.