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SC clears Almatti dam's height revision

The Supreme Court today gave the green signal to the Karnataka government to go ahead with raising the height of the Almatti dam on the Krishna river from 509 metres to 519.6 metres, subject to approval by the authorities concerned.

''It is not possible to grant a permanent injunction against raising of the dam height from 509 m to 519.6 m as sought by the Andhra Pradesh government in its suit. There is no bar as envisaged in the order of the Krishna River Water Dispute Tribunal to raise the height of the dam to 519.6 m to utilise a part of its share in the river water, '' the court added.

Earlier, by an interim order the court had restrained the Karnataka government from raising the height of the dam beyond 509 metres.

At the same time, the court held that the scheme 'b' framed by the tribunal for sharing of the dependable flow of water as well as surplus water in the river was not a decision of the tribunal and hence it could not be implemented as sought by the Karnataka government in its suit.

The unanimous verdict was given by a five-judge Constitution Bench comprising Justices S B Majumdar, G B Pattanaik, V N Khare, U C Banerjee and R P Sethi while disposing of suits by both the states on sharing of the river water and the height of the dam.

Though the verdict was unanimous, there were four judgments -- all concurring with the main delivered by Justice Pattanaik but with separate reasonings.

The court said, in the event any of the riparian states approaching the Centre for setting up a new tribunal, the Centre has assured that the same will be constituted immediately.

Keeping in view that the earlier tribunal's award is due for a review in May this year, the court said that the parties can place fresh data claiming higher share in the river water, before the new tribunal, once it is constituted.

The court noted it was on the advice of the four arbitrating chief ministers that there could be no bar on raising of the dam height to 519.6 metres. The four chief ministers had recommended the raising of the height on the basis of the report by an expert committee. The Karnataka government therefore should be allowed to raise the dam height.

The Almatti, the court said, forms part of a river dispute and therefore it cannot be a matter for adjudication by this court in view of the provisions of Article 262 of the Constitution which bars the jurisdiction of courts in river disputes.

UNI

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