[Mullaperiyar Dam] Supreme Court Forms New Supervisory Committee, Refers Matter to CJI

The Supreme Court of India, on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, ordered the formation of a new Supervisory Committee to find solutions acceptable to both Tamil Nadu and Kerala in a case concerning the Mullaperiyar Dam.

"The matter pertains to the Mullaperiyar Dam in relation to the dispute between the State of Tamil Nadu and Kerala regarding the rights over the dam, which was decided by a three-judge bench of this Court. Thereafter, the State of Tamil Nadu filed an application, inter alia, accusing the State of Kerala of interfering with the implementation of the above-mentioned judgment", the court said.

Court was hearing a plea filed Tamil Nadu government, claiming that the Kerala government had denied permission to carry out certain activities near the Mullaperiyar Dam.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh, therefore, directed the formation of a new supervisory committee. Court ordered, "It seems to us that a new Supervisory Committee, along with its chairman appointed on January 3, 2025, must look into the prayers made on behalf of the State of Tamil Nadu. The above-mentioned interim prayers by Tamil Nadu should be examined, and solutions that are preferably acceptable to both sides must be found. In the event of any disputes, the Supervisory Committee shall be directed to submit a report to this Court to enable us to resolve the issue.

The court has further directed the Chairman of the Supervisory Committee to convene a meeting of all concerned officials within one week and to take all necessary action to address the issue within two weeks.

Additionally, the top court ordered a report on the issue to be submitted in the fourth week from today.

While taking note of pending cases related to the matter before different benches, the Court accordingly ordered to club all matters together and to place them before the Chief Justice of India(CJI).

"The original suit has been under consideration by a three-judge bench of this Court since 2016. Some of these matters are required to be listed before a three-judge bench. In the interest of justice, we are of the view that all matters should be clubbed together and listed before a single bench. The matter may be placed before the Chief Justice of India for appropriate orders".

During the hearing, Senior Advocate Shekhar Nahpade, appearing for Tamil Nadu, said," I hope the State of Kerala should realise that there is a constitutional value of cooperative federalism."

Appearing on behalf of the State of Kerala, Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta however raised concerns about the dam's age and the state's consistent avoidance of reviews.

Recently, a petition was filed by Advocate Mathews Nedumpara, seeking a review of the top court's 2006 order, which had held that the Mullaperiyar dam was structurally safe. While noting the failure of the Union Government to constitute a National Committee under the Dam Safety Act, the Supreme Court of India had issued a notice to the Central Government in a long-standing case pertaining to the Mullaperiyar Dam.

Background

It is noteworthy that Mullaperiyar Dam has been a contentious issue between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Dam is situated in Kerala's Periyar River and which supplies water to five districts of Tamil Nadu. Kerala has been maintaining for the past few decades that the Dam is unsafe, Tamil Nadu has all along vouched for its safety.

In 2014, the Supreme Court had ruled in favour of the State of Tamil Nadu, reiterating that the dam's structure was safe while permitting the water level to be maintained at 142 feet. The Court had also constituted a supervisory committee in order to assess the dam's safety periodically.

In April 2022, the Supreme Court had directed the State of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to extend whatever possible assistance is required by the Supervisory Committee while pronouncing its order over the issue of the Supervisory Committee in the matter concerning the safety of the Mullaperiyar dam.

Earlier, the bench after hearing the Kerala Government and Tamil Nadu objecting to the functioning of the Committee said that the Court intends to strengthen the Committee and the Committee will have all the powers under the 2021 Act, let there be some problems, then we'll look into it. "You are anticipating everything," Justice Khanwilkar added. Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta argued before the Supreme Court had submitted that in the long run, a process for the construction of a new dam has to start considering the issue surrounding the Mullaperiyar dam’s safety.

The state of Kerala in its written submission submitted before the Supreme Court that the state of Kerala is only concerned with protecting and keeping safe the life and properties of the people in the downstream reaches of the river basin of the river Periyar as it flows down the Western Ghats and meets the sea north of Cochin.

Case Title: STATE OF TAMIL NADU Vs STATE OF KERALA.