Mullaperiyar Dam Case : Supreme Court Asks Kerala To Approach Supervisory Committee With Grievance Over Tamil Nadu Releasing Water

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the State of Kerala to approach the Supervisory Committee of the Mullaperiyar dam with its grievance regarding the release of water from the dam without prior notice.

The Court expressed a lack of inclination to adjudicate the merits of Kerala's application and observed that the grievances should be raised before the Committee. A bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar observed that the Court cannot involve in the day-to-day administration of the dam and suggested that the parties should consensually resolve their differences before the committee.

Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for the State of Kerala, submitted that the application was filed seeking a direction that before releasing water from the 126-year old dam, Tamil Nadu should give prior notice of 24 hours. Since Tamil Nadu, which is operating the dam, released huge amounts of water at night without notice over the past several days when the water level reached the upper limit of 142 feet, it led to the flooding of several houses, Gupta submitted.

"We are not complaining against the release of water. We are complaining against letting the water through in the middle of the night without warning leading to flooding of people's houses. So we need 24 hours notice", Gupta submitted.

Senior Advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for the State of Tamil Nadu, submitted that this application is interlinked with the rule curve issue, which is under consideration of the Court. Naphade complained that applications after applications are being filed in the matter.

The bench asked when there is a Committee constituted for the dam, why the Supreme Court was being approached with the issue.

"Let the supervisory committee decide if the release of water is needed or not", Justice Khanwilkar observed.

"The Committee is absolutely silent on this. They are not doing anything", Gupta replied.

Justice Khanwilkar observed that the representative of Kerala is to be blamed if the Committee is not taking any action. Gupta replied that the Committee is supposed to be an impartial body, though it has representatives of all parties.

During the hearing, Justice Khanwilkar also observed that the Court cannot be made a platform for political compulsions. "All political statements are being made here and such statements cannot be made in court. You might have political compulsions but we're not concerned here with that".

"The Committee is the best judge for that. When to release is the Committee's prerogative. Your representative is there on the committee. He is there, he will take care of that. We will not pass any direction to the committee to take a particular decision or not take a particular decision. The Committee will take into account requests for release so that the need can be considered. Whether release is necessary or not let that be decided by the Committee. Every activity has to be a consensual activity. If the committee says that it is not supposed to be released, then it will not be released", Justice Khanwilkar added.

Finally, the bench disposed of the application with the following order :

"Instead of examining grievances in the application which may involve debatable issues and contentious positions, we deem it appropriate that the parties must first approach the Supervisory Committee before taking any steps for release or management of the water level in the dam concerned. That would assuage the apprehensions of both sides. If such request is made, the committee may consider the request expeditiously depending on the urgency involved. We say no more. Both sides must abide by its decision and no application be moved before this court for such grievances which can be sorted out by consensual approach of both sides"

The bench also posted the writ petitions, which are filed by Kerala based parties seeking proper management of the dam, for final hearing on January 11, 2022.

The Kerala Government had earlier filed an affidavit disputing the rule curve adopted by the Supervisory Committee at the suggestion of Tamil Nadu. It was added that the long term solution to the problem was the decommissioning of the existing dam to construct a new dam.