Ponnaiyar river row: SC asks Centre to reconstitute negotiation committee

Karnataka was given a reprieve when Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Misra of the Supreme Court’s division bench ordered the creation of a new negotiation panel by the Center to settle the Ponnaiyar river issue between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

On November 30, 2019, Tamil Nadu filed a case under Section 3 of the Interstate River Water Disputes Act, 1956, asking for a tribunal on the basis that Karnataka’s initiatives may negatively impact it as a downstream state.

In order to settle the disagreement, the Center established a negotiating committee on January 20, 2020, in accordance with Section 4 (1) of the Act. During COVID, there were two rounds of negotiations: on February 24, 2020, and July 7, 2020. Nevertheless, it said that talks would not be able to settle the conflict. On May 2, 2023, the Center then notified the SC that it had made the decision to organize a tribunal.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Water Resources Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asked for the resumption of talks rather than the tribunal. The Center then requested the restart of discussions in an affidavit that it submitted with the SC on October 10, 2023.

Tamil Nadu’s senior attorney Krishnamurthy objected to the Center’s proposal, calling it a time waster. Senior attorney Mohan Katarki, however, argued on behalf of Karnataka that the prior committee hastily came to the hasty conclusion that the matter could not be settled by discussion after only two sessions. He made the point that it didn’t go on field trips. Representing the Center, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati argued that as interstate issues are delicate, more talks need to be allowed.

The bench ordered the Union government to form a new committee for negotiations and mandated that the committee turn in its report in three months.