Supreme Court hearing on KWDT on December 6

The hearing on the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh challenging the KWDT judgement in the Supreme Court has been posted for December 6.

Hyderabad: The hearing on the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh challenging the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-2 (KWDT) judgement in the Supreme Court has been posted for December 6. Karnataka wanted to hear their Interlocutory Application (IA) and be allowed to publish a modified KWDT-II order supported by Maharastra, whereas Telangana wanted to hear the main case related to SLPs supported by Andhra Pradesh.

The hearing is related to the SLP filed on February 18, 2022 by the government of Karnataka in Supreme Court, seeking to set up a bench to hear a plea related to dispute over allocation of water of Krishna River. Whereas, Andhra Pradesh has filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court over a dispute with Telangana regarding sharing of Krishna river water. The writ petition seeks to direct the centre to notify the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) jurisdiction under Section 87 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.

---

The KWDT-2 was constituted on April 2, 2004 under the Inter-state River Water Disputes Act, 1956, by the Tribunal of Justice Brijesh Kumar at the request of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in the river basin to redistribute the waters of the Krishna River. After hearing the arguments of the three States, KWDT-2, while continuing the KWDT-1 allocations, ruled on December 30, 2010 allocating 81 TMC to Maharashtra, 177 TMC to Karnataka and 190 TMC to the united Andhra Pradesh out of 448 TMC between 75 per cent and 65 per cent availability.

However, the united Andhra Pradesh Government, which was not satisfied with the order of the KWDT-2, filed a SLP in the Supreme Court challenging the verdict in 2011. After the partition, the Telangana government too filed a petition in the Apex Court challenging the KWDT-2 judgment. The matter is still sub-judice before the Supreme Court.