New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the central government to respond to Tamil Nadu's plea seeking a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) shield for Kerala's Mullaperiyar Dam that serves the neighbouring state. It also warned both the state governments to refrain from inflaming the passions of people on the issue.
The court pulled up the Tamil Nadu government for using its oral observations reported in newspapers in an advertisement for political gains.
The constitution bench of Justice D K Jain, Justice R M Lodha, Justice Deepak Verma, Justice C K Prasad and Justice Anil R Dave sought the government's response by Thursday, the day when the case would be heard next.
The court's direction came after Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval said that he had no instructions from the government on this point.
Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been at loggerheads over the dam, built under an 1886 accord between the then Maharaja of Travancore and the erstwhile British Raj. While it is located in Kerala, the dam's water serves Tamil Nadu, which also manages its affairs.
The court asked the Tamil Nadu government to ensure that the water level in the dam did not exceed 136 feet as directed by it in an earlier order.
"You are obliged to ensure that water level does not exceed 136 feet. It is our order," the court told senior counsel Raju Ramachandran, appearing for Tamil Nadu.
The court reminded him that water level in the dam exceeded 136 feet limit for 10 days in row in November.
The petition of the Kerala government seeking reduction in the water level from 136 feet to 120 feet was dismissed as not pressed.
Senior counsel P P Rao, appearing for the Kerala government, sought to draw the attention of the court on the safety of the dam.
The court said that the mere fact that the empowered committee headed by former chief justice of India A S Anand set up on the direction of the court in February 2011 was going to the dam site to inspect its safety shows that there was nothing that required any emergency remedial steps.
"The fact of the matter is that there is nothing grave or serious that requires the modification of court's order on providing 136 feet water level," the court told Rao.
When Ramachandran said that three paragraphs of oral observations of the court reported by newspapers were put in an advertisement by Tamil Nadu, the court said: "You want to make even our oral observations part of the court records."
Asking for display of "sanity and sensibility on the both sides", the court regretted that "both sides instead of dousing the fire are inflaming it".
"You (Tamil Nadu) are asking for our gag orders so that they (Kerala) don't make any statement and then use our statement for making political gains," the judges said.
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