The Hindu : SC adjourns Mullaiperiyar dam case to March

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 06, 2002

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SC adjourns Mullaiperiyar dam case to March

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI Dec. 5. The Supreme Court posted for final hearing in March 2003, petitions filed by the Janata Party president, Subramanian Swamy, and the Tamil Nadu Government seeking the raising of the water level of the Mullaiperiyar dam from 136 ft to 152 ft.

A three-Judge Bench comprising the Chief Justice, G.B. Pattanaik, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice S.B. Sinha adjourned the proceedings even as Dr. Swamy pleaded for early hearing of the matter.

It might be recalled that during the pendency of the petitions, an expert committee was set up by the Centre pursuant to the court's direction to go into the safety aspects regarding the raising of the dam's water level beyond 136 ft. In its report, the committee recommended raising of the level initially up to 142 ft.

The Centre, which accepted the report in an affidavit, said the dam's water level be raised initially up to 142 ft. It also said that strengthening measures suggested by the Central Water Commission and recommended by the expert committee were necessary for the dam's safety.

In its response, the Tamil Nadu Government urged the court to issue appropriate directions to the Centre and the Kerala Government for implementing the expert committee's findings and to permit the State to raise the water level up to 142 ft as an interim measure.

However, Kerala urged the court to reject the expert committee's "unilateral'' report as the concerns expressed by the State were not duly taken into account by the panel. It wanted a detailed study conducted by a fresh team on the unpredictable impacts of the seismic tremors experienced in the State last year, especially in the dam area. A public interest litigation filed by the Mullaiperiyar Environmental Protection Forum, Thekkady in Kerala, in the Supreme Court in September last against raising the water level beyond 136 ft was also tagged on with the two petitions and notice was ordered.

In its reply filed today, Tamil Nadu denied the petitioner's contention that raising the water level would affect the wildlife habitat. It said that the Periyar Tiger Reserve would not in any way be affected by the proposed increase.

Also, there would be no threat to life and property of the people living in the downstream because prior to lowering of the water level from 152 ft to 136 ft on a temporary basis, they had a comfortable living and no complaints were made by Kerala, Tamil Nadu said and sought dismissal of the petition.

Cauvery hearing put off

Meanwhile, the Bench did not take up the Cauvery case today. Though it was listed for hearing it was later struck off.

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