Mullaperiyar Case : Supreme Court Suggests Giving Supervisory Committee Powers Under Dam Safety Act

In connection with the Mullaperiyar dam dispute, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre and the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala to consider a "working arrangement" where the court-appointed Supervisory Committee may be entrusted with the functions and duties of the National Dam Safety Authority under the Dam Safety Act, 2021.

Last week, the Court had asked the Centre to file a note by Tuesday, detailing a time-line and plan as regards making functional the National Dam Safety Authority and the other bodies, the structure envisaged by the Dam Safety Act, 2021, and for making operational the scheme and the framework under the Act.

On Tuesday, ASG Aishwarya Bhati informed the bench of Justices A. M. Khanwilkar, A. S. Oka and C. T. Ravikumar, "To make the Authority fully functional, it will take one year. And to set up a temporary structure, it will take one month. Your Lordships may consider directing the existing Supervisory Committee to continue in the meantime. The Committee already has members of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. One additional suggestion is adding experts members from each state to the committee"

Justice Khanwilkar to the ASG, and Senior Advocates Jaideep Gupta and Shekhar Naphade (for the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu respectively): "And we can direct that the Supervisory Committee is to carry out all activities and functions under this Act till the final body comes into place. This is a working arrangement, not a regular arrangement. We will record your assurance that you require one month for a temporary structure and one year for the final authority. Until such time, the Supervisory Committee will discharge all the functions of the NDSA under the Act. Consider this, we will have it on Thursday"

Continuing, the judge observed, "For all purposes, the Supervisory Committee will discharge all the activities until further orders are passed by this court. We can even clarify that so far as this dam is concerned, the NDSA will not get involved for the time being- there has to be certainty and no confusion at any level. This is a very delicate situation concerning dam stability and its structural issues have to be dealt with, there has to be some timeline, that has to be dealt with on a real-time basis. This is the way forward, you may give better suggestions. This is a very simple arrangement to be immediately adopted under the Act; even the central government is not able to deliver immediately under the Act. We may direct the central government that all infrastructural facilities are to be made available to the Supervisory Committee so that it can now carry out all functions and duties under this Act. We can strengthen the Supervisory Committee by adding expert members, no issues"

Adjourning the matter to Thursday, Justice Khanwilkar remarked that Senior Advocates Jaideep Gupta and Shekhar Naphade, for the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu respectively, "can prepare the minutes (for the order which the Court may consider passing) on these lines, including strengthening of the existing committee by adding one expert member each from each state"

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