Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 – ss.3, 4 – InterState River Pennaiyar – Dispute as regards the sharing of the waters of the Pennaiyar River and arising from the alleged construction of a check dam/diversion by the State of Karnataka-defendant-State on the said river, impeding the free flow of water, thereby depriving the State of Tamil Nadu-plaintiff-State of the benefits of the river waters flowing through the territories of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and thereafter into Puducherry – Suit by the plaintiff-State against defendant-State and the Union of India seeking declaration that the said unilateral action of the defendant-State, illegal and violates the fundamental rights of the inhabitants of the plaintiff-State; grant permanent injunction restraining the defendant-State, from proceeding with the construction of Check Dam/diversion structure across the Pennaiyar river and its tributaries, and pumping water from them to the existing tanks in the Pennaiyar basin by the defendant-State; and other directions:
Held: Pennaiyar River water dispute has been pending consideration before this Court since the year 2018 – Multiple efforts have been undertaken by the concerned stakeholders to bring about an amicable resolution of the dispute – However, the negotiation process has not yielded any mutually acceptable outcome – In view of the inability of the parties to arrive at a common settlement, appropriate to call upon the Central Government to constitute a tribunal in terms of the statutory framework, so that the dispute may be adjudicated in accordance with law – In addition, the affidavit filed by the Union records that, during the ministeriallevel negotiations, the plaintiff-State unequivocally conveyed that the Pennaiyar River water dispute ought to be resolved through adjudication by a Tribunal and in view thereof, the defendant no.2 took a decision to indefinitely defer the negotiation process – Thus, issuance of direction to the Central Government to issue an appropriate notification in the Official Gazette and to constitute a Water Disputes Tribunal for the adjudication of the inter se water dispute between the parties, within the one month from the date of judgment. [Paras 7-10]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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