TeluguabroadWith the Centre rejecting TS’ demand for a fresh Tribunal to resolve the Krishna water dispute, the Supreme Court on Thursday made it clear to the state that it will not call for the records of the Centre to find out as to why the reference was turned down.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C. Pant made this oral observation after senior counsel Fali Nariman, appearing for Karnataka state referred to an application filed by TS seeking a direction to summon the records relating to the decision making process.
Following this observation senior counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan, appearing for TS, sought permission to withdraw the plea and it was dismissed as withdrawn.
During the resumed hearing, additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta informed the Bench that an affidavit has been filed reiterating the Centre’s position not to refer the dispute to a new Tribunal.
He said the matter has already been referred to the Krishna Tribunal to resolve the dispute between AP and TS without disturbing the project-wise allocation of water to Karnataka and Maharashtra and the same stand was reiterated.
The bench was hearing petitions challenging the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-2 award on allocation of water among AP, TS, Karnataka and Maharashtra states.
Mr Vaidyanathan submitted that the state required time to reply to Centre’s affidavit and to explore various options as the issue pertained to Centre-state relations.
