Cauvery dispute: Tamil Nadu moves Supreme Court, accuses Karnataka of not releasing due share of river water

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Tamil Nadu to file a fresh plea alleging that Karnataka was not giving its due share of 22.5 TMC of Cauvery water.

A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra asked the counsel for Tamil Nadu to file a proper application in this regard and assured that it would hear the matter.

Tamil Nadu alleged that Karnataka was under an obligation to give it 22.5 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) in the last 25 days but only 16.58 TMC had been released so far, leaving a substantial shortfall in supply.

The apex court had on 18 October last year directed Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu till further orders and asked the two governments to ensure peace and harmony, saying citizens should not become a law unto themselves.

Earlier, on 30 September, 2016, the Supreme Court rapped Karnataka for its repeated “defiance” in flouting its orders for releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu and said no one would know when the “wrath of the law” would fall on it.

On 1 October, Karnataka had moved a review petition in the apex court against its three orders on on the issue and direction to the Centre to create the Cauvery Water Management Board (CWMB).

In its review petition, Karnataka said “grave miscarriage of justice” had been caused to it following the three apex court orders of 20, 27, 30 September by which it was directed to release water and the Centre was to constitute the Board by 4 October.