New SC bench formed, to hear Cauvery matter on Oct 18

The Supreme Court has constituted a fresh bench of three judges to hear an age-old dispute related to the sharing of Cauvery water between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The new bench would comprise justices Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and AM Khanwilkar and will take up all the issues arising out of the Cauvery water dispute on October 18.

Earlier, on October 4, a bench comprising justices Dipak Misra and UU Lalit had agreed to the counsels representing both the sides that the matter had to be heard by a three-judge bench.

The bench was told during the last hearing that when the appeals were filed against the order of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal, it was decided that the matter would be heard by a three-judge bench.

In the meantime, the bench, in an interim order, had directed Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu from October 7 to 18, while deferring its order asking the Centre to set up the Cauvery Water Management Board till it finally decided on appeals relating to the dispute.

Instead, the apex court had agreed to the suggestion that a Supervisory Committee, comprising officials and technical experts from the Centre, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry, be set up to inspect the Cauvery basin for assessing the ground realities.

The committee was asked by the bench to file its report by October 17.

The matter will be taken up a day after the court reopens after the Dussehra break.