The central government has once again (3rd time) failed to submit a draft scheme to enable the equitable sharing of Cauvery water.
Political considerations are suspected to have played a major role in the center’s action that seems to be undermining Supreme Court’s authority.
How did the present situation evolve?
The final verdict on Cauvery was given by the Supreme Court (SC) in February 2018, which ended a dispute of over 2 decades.
The verdict had provided for the formulation of a scheme for equitable sharing of Cauvery waters within 6 weeks.
The central government failed to constitute the board within the deadline citing frivolous ambiguities.
Consequently, SC had re-iterated its earlier verdict and asked for the constitution of a scheme within 3 weeks time.
This 2nd deadline had recently passed and the centre had again failed to comply citing the busy electioneering schedule of the central ministers.
This argument is legally untenable and morally wrong, and the centre could be pulled over for contempt of court for failing to fulfil a statutory obligation.
Busy schedule of the union ministers also seems bogus as cabinet decisions on multiple other issues were cleared recently.
What are the implications?
SC court had stated in its original verdict that there shall be no delay in constituting a ‘Scheme for Cauvery’.
But the Centre had been delaying it indefinitely and its approach to the case has been highly politicised.
Notably, the political calculus in mind seems to be the approaching Karnataka Assembly elections.
The Centre had mentioned that it had convened a meeting of representatives of the four States and had cited differences of opinion among the States.
While there is a ring of truth to this, the court noted that the central government clearly lacked the intention.
This set a very bad precedent and could prove disastrous for the political fabric of the nation in the long run.
