Cauvery row: SC upholds maintainability of appeals by states

The Supreme Court today upheld the maintainability of appeals filed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala against the 2007 award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT) on sharing of river water saying it has the "jurisdiction to decide the parameters, scope, authority and jurisdiction of the tribunal".
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said the exposition of the principles of law, the intendment of the legislature and the ultimate purpose and effect of the provision compel it to "repel" the submissions raised on behalf of the Union of India that Section 6(2) bars the jurisdiction conferred on this court under Article 136.

The bench also comprising Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar said that from the provisions it is clear as crystal that Parliament did not intend to create any kind of embargo on the jurisdiction of this court and the provision section 6 (2) was inserted to give the binding effect to the award passed by the tribunal.
"The founding fathers had not conferred the power on this court to entertain an original suit or complaint and that is luminescent from the language employed in Article 131 of the Constitution and from the series of pronouncements of this court," the bench said, adding that the words "same force as on order or decision" cannot be treated as a decree for the purpose for excluding the jurisdiction of the apex court.

Elaborating, the court said that the award of tribunal cannot be a "decree as if this court has adjudicated the matter and decree is passed".
"Parliament has intended that the same (tribunal's award) shall be executed or abided as if it is a decree of this court. It is to be borne in mind that a provision should not be interpreted to give a different colour which has a technical design rather than serving the object of the legislation," it said.

Referring to an earlier Constitution bench judgement of apex court, the bench said that it was held that this court cannot take cognisance of an original dispute or complaint.

While referring to another verdict of the apex court, the
bench said that "this court has jurisdiction to decide the parameters, scope, authority and jurisdiction of the tribunal".
It said that once a water dispute is adjudicated by the tribunal under the provisions of the Constitution, it loses the nature of dispute.
"A person aggrieved can always have his remedy invoking the jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution of India. We have not a scintilla of doubt in our mind that the founding fathers did not want the award or the final order passed by the tribunal to remain immune from challenge.

"That is neither the express language of Article 262(1) nor it impliedly so states. Thus, the contention of the Union of India with regard to maintainability of the appeal by special leave under Article 136 of the Constitution of India on this score stands repelled," it said.
The bench listed the appeals filed by three states to be heard on December 15, 2016 and directed that interim orders passed on October 18 will continue.
On October 18, the apex court had directed Karnataka to keep supplying Tamil Nadu with 2,000 cusecs of water till further orders.
The court had earlier said that it would first go into the issue of maintainability of appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the award of tribunal and then hear arguments on the report filed by Supervisory Committee formed to assess the ground realities in the Cauvery basin region.

The Centre, through Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, had raised a preliminary objection claiming that the CWDT award amounted to a final decree in the dispute and the apex court had no jurisdiction to hear appeals against the award of the tribunal.
But the states had contended that their appeals were maintainable saying the Supreme Court had the jurisdiction to adjudicate the appeals filed by the state against the award of tribunal and that no statute can take away the appellate powers of the apex court under Article 136 of the Constitution.