Cauvery row: Karnataka says Tamil Nadu's plea is not maintainable

Karnataka on Tuesday submitted to the Supreme Court that Tamil Nadu's plea for release of at least 30 thousand million cubic feet (TMCft) of water from Cauvery river is not maintainable and the court should not adjudicate the dispute on basis of emotional appeals.

Appearing before a bench of justice DK Jain and justice Madan B Lokur, the rival states continued to level allegations against each other with Tamil Nadu accusing Karnataka of cornering its share of water and the latter alleging that the former is making emotional appeal to the apex court to get more water.

Senior advocate Anil Diwan, appearing for Karnataka said Tamil Nadu's plea is not maintainable as the state has not challenged the decisions of Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) and Cauvery River Authority (CRA) headed by the Prime Minister.

"There is a method for settling disputes between two states and it is not being followed by Tamil Nadu. It has not challenged the decision of CRA and CMC. It has instead filed interim application in the old dispute," he said.

Diwan said that farmers of Karnataka would also suffer if the water is released to Tamil Nadu and five to ten thousands acres of land would go waste with release of one TMC water.

"It is very emotional to say that their farmers are suffering. Let us not go by the emotional appeal and the matter should be decided by following proper procedure," he said.