The Hindu : Krishna tenders apology

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 29, 2002

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Krishna tenders apology

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI OCT. 28. With the Karnataka Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, tendering an "unconditional apology" and informing the court about the release of 10,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court today deferred till Friday the passing of orders on the two contempt petitions against him.

However, senior counsel for Tamil Nadu, K.K. Venugopal, told a three-Judge Bench comprising the Chief Justice B.N. Kirpal, Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice Arijit Pasayat that the apology and the statement to release water were only a "lip service" as these were done only when faced with contempt proceedings. Reacting to this, the Bench made it clear "we are not accepting the apology. It is only on record. Let's see how things work out. Let's see whether your farmers get water and also those in Pondicherry".

Earlier, when the case was taken up, senior counsel for Karnataka, Anil Divan, read out the affidavit filed by Mr. Krishna. It said "in deference to the observations made by this court on October 24 that Karnataka is prima facie guilty of contempt of this court, I express my unconditional apology".

Further, "the Government of Karnataka has already started releasing (10,000 cusecs) waters from its reservoirs. By means of these releases, the Government is complying with the orders of this court and the decision of the Cauvery River Authority''.

"In these circumstances, the court may be pleased to drop the contempt proceedings and accept the unqualified apology," Mr. Krishna said and urged the court to direct the CRA for an early consideration of the State's request for modifications or revision of its decision made on September 8.

The Bench told Mr. Divan: "We are happy to know a constitutional crisis has blown over. We are only interested in seeing implementation of the court's order. It gives us no pleasure to punish anybody and we are not having a whip to ensure that our orders are implemented. But what caused us great anguish is that the State of Karnataka, foremost in development, showed scant respect to the Supreme Court's order. It is disgraceful."

When Mr. Divan agreed with the Bench that Karnataka had erred, the Bench said that "curiously enough, you have fights with all your neighbours — Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu — with regard to water. You do not have the spirit of sharing. You want to keep everything to yourself and that is selfishness. Your generosity will be measured by your attitude at the time of scarcity and not when you have surplus.''

Mr. Venugopal submitted that Karnataka had kept quiet for more than 48 hours but started releasing water from Sunday night because the case was coming up for hearing today and it should not be construed that it had obeyed the court's order in totality. He brought to the court's notice how ever since the Cauvery Tribunal passed its order on June 25, 1991, Karnataka had not implemented the order sincerely and only the overflows had reached Tamil Nadu.

Because of this "defiant" attitude, the `kuruvai' crops in Tamil Nadu had suffered and the State could not raise the `talady' crop and the `samba' too was affected. The Bench told Mr. Venugopal: "It is not that the past sins of Karnataka have been washed away. It is only that they have mended their way so as to request us to take a lenient view.''

The Solicitor-General, Harish Salve, appearing for the Centre said that Mr. Krishna had met him after the court made its observations on October 24 and a constitutional crisis had been over due to the efforts on all quarters. The Bench quipped: "We came quite close, almost to the brink of it."

The Bench directed Karnataka to file an affidavit by November 1 indicating the quantum of water released to Tamil Nadu. The Centre was asked to file an affidavit furnishing the details of water released at Biligundlu and at Mettur and both the State Governments were directed to render all assistance to the Centre in this regard.

The Bench said that all aspects of the case, including any further action on the contempt proceedings, would be taken up on November 1 and it would depend on the release of water by Karnataka.

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