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SC asks Jayalalithaa to withdraw allegations against CRA

The Supreme Court on Friday took strong exception to a letter written by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee saying she had no confidence in the Cauvery River Authority headed by him.

A bench comprising Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice Arijit Pasayat termed the letter as unfortunate and Tamil Nadu's counsel K K Venugopal said the state had full faith in the prime minister and the CRA headed by him.

He submitted that the chief minister would send a letter to the prime minister 'very soon' withdrawing the insinuations and expressing confidence in the authority.

The court directed Solicitor General Kirit Raval to find out the date on which CRA would meet and posted the hearing of the case to November 22.

"We were distressed to read the contents of the November five letter written by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister to the prime minister. It is unfortunate that a sort of lack of faith has been communicated in that letter against the CRA in general and the prime minister of the country in particular," the judges observed.

Asking Tamil Nadu to respond to the affidavit filed by Karnataka, the court said the state should initiate action within four days so that the bench had definite information about the date of convening the next CRA meeting.

It also directed the solicitor general to take instructions in this regard.

Right at the beginning of the hearing, the court referred to Jayalalithaa's letter and said, "It is a matter of distress. You have to have faith in somebody. Some restraint has to be exercised by the person who is the chief minister of a state."

The bench observed that it was not a personal matter that accusations of all types could be made. When Venugopal contended it might be out of personal anguish, the bench said, "We want to bring to your notice that personal anguish does not matter in cases of this nature."

It also said the Union government was partly responsible for the exchange of letters that took place, as the CRA meeting could not be convened.

Responding to the court's observations, Raval said the CRA had to function in a proper atmosphere. "When people express no faith in it, it becomes difficult to proceed with the matter," he added.

On November one, the court had requested the CRA headed by the prime minister to resolve the water dispute at the earliest and had fixed an interim formula directing Karnataka to release to Tamil Nadu 9000 cusecs of water daily till November six and, thereafter, around 6,000 cusecs of water everyday till November 15.

It had deferred a decision on the action to be taken against Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna for non-compliance of court orders.

Cauvery Water Dispute: The Complete Coverage

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