National

Apex court drops contempt case against S.M. Krishna

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dropped contempt of court proceedings against former Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna accepting his “unconditional apology” for not implementing the directions in the suit relating to the Cauvery water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

A three-Judge Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice J.M. Panchal, after hearing counsel for Tamil Nadu G. Umapathy and senior counsel Fali Nariman and Anil Divan for Karnataka, disposed of the two contempt petitions filed by Tamil Nadu against Mr. Krishna in terms of his affidavit filed on October 28, 2002. The Bench posted the suit for further hearing on January 28, 2009. Acting on a suit filed by Tamil Nadu, the apex court on October 24, 2002, had directed Karnataka to release from its four reservoirs 1.25 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water everyday to Tamil Nadu till the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) took a final decision on the quantum of release of water. The suit had sought a direction to Karnataka to comply with the interim orders of the Cauvery Tribunal and also an interim direction to release one tmc ft of water daily to Tamil Nadu. Since the order was not implemented Tamil Nadu filed a contempt petition and later filed the second contempt petition for the statements made by Mr. Krishna.

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