Mullaperiyar Dam : Supreme Court Asks Supervisory Committee To Look Into Tamil Nadu's Complaints Against Kerala

In the original suit pending between States of Tamil Nadu and Kerala over the Mullaperiyar Dam, the Supreme Court yesterday directed the Supervisory Committee constituted by the Union to convene a meeting of all concerned officers of the states to try and resolve the interim issues raised by Tamil Nadu.

In the event of inability to resolve some issues, the Committee shall submit a report to the Court to enable it to address them, the order added.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh passed the directions, while placing before CJI Sanjiv Khanna all the cases pending before the Court related to Mullaperiyar dam safety (for consolidation). These included - the present original suit, Dr. Joe Joseph v. State of Tamil Nadu and Mathews J. Nedumpara v. Union of India.

Senior Advocate Shekhar Naphade (for Tamil Nadu), alleging "sorry state of affairs", submitted that something is required to be done urgently as the state has been trying to get the 2014 judgment executed for the past 10 yrs. He further contended that in all the 25 years of litigation, Kerala has objected to everything Tamil Nadu has said and attempted to drive to a situation where the Mullaperiyar dam is demolished. It was also claimed that the Mullaperiyar dam has been found to be safe.

Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta (for Kerala), on the other hand, contended that under the new Dam Safety Act, there has to be a review of the dam safety every 5 years, but Tamil Nadu is avoiding the same.

Hearing the senior counsels, Justice Kant commented that some of the issues raised (cutting of trees, plying of boats, executive engineer's presence during repair work etc.) are like "school children fighting". "We are only wondering [do] these issues really require judicial adjudication?" the judge said.

When Justice Kant suggested having the Supervisory Committee deal with the interim prayers made by Tamil Nadu, Naphade submitted that Kerala has not been complying with the Committee's orders. In response, the judge expressed an expectation that when a judicial command is given to the Committee, something will happen. At this point, Gupta pointed out that there is also an issue regarding the constitution of the Committee. On this, Justice Kant said that if its composition is found to be incorrect, the Committee can be reconstituted but till then, some work should continue.

The Court was dealing with Tamil Nadu's application of 2017 seeking execution of the 2014 judgment. It accused, inter alia, the State of Kerala of (i) interfering with the implementation of the judgment, (ii) not granting clearance for cutting of trees to make approach-path to the dam, (iii) not providing free entry and access from Kerala side into the leased dam area; etc.

Kerala's response to this application was that: (i) the 2014 judgment was self-executed; (ii) the Supervisory Committee has been constituted by the Union for execution of the judgment, (iii) issue of cutting of trees is not resolved by the judgment, etc.

The Court considered another application filed by State of Kerala, wherein Tamil Nadu filed an affidavit seeking urgent redressal of the following issues: (i) restoration of permission granted for felling of trees, (ii) permission for carriage of materials and machinery to the repair site, (iii) issuing orders for repair of a road, (iv) allowing the plying of one more boat in Periyar lake; etc.

Taking into account the same, the Court ordered:

"A new Supervisory Committee alongwith its Chairman who has been appointed on 03.01.2025 must look into the abovementioned interim prayers made by the State of Tamil Nadu and find out a solution preferably which may be acceptable to both sides. However, in the event of any dispute regarding any of the issues, the Supervisory Committee is directed to submit a report to enable us to resolve the left out issues. The Chairman of the Supervisory Committee will convene the meeting of all the concerned officers of both states within 1 week. Necessary action to address the issues enlisted above shall be taken within 2 weeks thereafter and a Report shall be submitted to this Court...".

After the order was dictated, Naphade remarked, "all that I wish is that the State of Kerala realizes that there is a constitutional value of cooperative federalism."

Background

The Mullaperiyar issue has been before the Supreme Court since a long period of time. Initially, the matter reached the Court by way of a writ petition (Mullaperiyar Environmental Protection Forum v. Union of India & Ors) which was decided by a three-judge Bench comprising of then Chief Justice YK Sabharwal, Justices CK Thakker and PK Balasubramanyan. This writ petition was dismissed, with permission for the water level of the Mullaperiyar dam to be raised to 142 ft. and further strengthening of the dam.

After this judgment, which was delivered on 27.02.2006 by a 3-judge bench, Kerala amended the 'Kerala Irrigation and Water (Conservation) Act' and Mullaperiyar dam was designated as a Scheduled dam, treating it as endangered dam, and the water level was restricted to 136 ft. This was followed by Tamil Nadu filing an original suit before the Supreme Court against the provisions of the amended Act in its application to Mullaperiyar.

In 2011, a Constitution Bench of the Court constituted an Empowered Committee, which gave a Report that as per the tests, investigations and studies conducted by it, the Old Mullaperiyar Dam was hydrologically, seismically and structurally safe for holding water up to 142 ft.

Ultimately, in 2014, the Constitution Bench held that Kerala cannot obstruct Tamil Nadu from increasing the water level of Mullaperiyar dam to 142 ft. and from carrying out repair works as per judgment dated 27.02.2006. Vide this judgment, the Court also constituted a 3-member Supervisory Committee to supervise the restoration of FRL in the Mullaperiyar dam to the elevation of 142 ft.

In April, 2022, the Court directed in a separate case pertaining to the Mullaperiyar Dam that the Supervisory Committee (constituted in 2014 to monitor the safety arrangements of the dam) should continue its operations till the National Dam Safety Authority under the Dam Safety Act 2021 comes into effect.

Recently, Advocate Mathews J Nedupmara (and others) filed a petition raising the issue of structural safety of the Mullaperiyar Dam and on January 8, a 3-judge bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan called for the Union of India's response on whether a supervisory authority as per the National Dam Safety Act has been constituted.

Case Title: STATE OF TAMIL NADU Versus STATE OF KERALA . AND ANR., ORGNL.SUIT No. 3/2006

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