Supreme Court of India

STATE OF TAMIL NADU REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENTversusSIDDARAMAIAH, CHIEF MINISTER, GOVERNMENT OF KARNAKATA & ORS.

Citation: 2018 INSC 154
Decided: 16 February 2018
Disposal: Disposed off
Bench: DIPAK MISRA

Holding

The contempt petition is closed as the matters raised therein have already been decided in Civil Appeal No. 2456 of 2007.

Summary

The Supreme Court considered a contempt petition (Civil) No. 225 of 2013 filed by the State of Tamil Nadu against the Chief Minister of Karnataka and others, arising out of the inter‑state Cauvery water dispute. The petition sought to hold the respondents in contempt for allegedly violating the earlier judgment in Civil Appeal No. 2456 of 2007, which had settled the water allocation among Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry. The Court observed that the substantive issues had already been finally decided in the said appeal and that no further contempt proceedings were warranted. Consequently, the Court ordered the contempt petition to be closed. The decision effectively dismissed the contempt application without any further hearing.

Issues considered

What is the appropriate course of action for a contempt petition when the underlying dispute has already been finally adjudicated in a prior Supreme Court appeal?

Legislation cited

Inter-State Water Disputes Act, 1956s. 5(2)

Subjects

Inter-State Water DisputesCauvery water disputeContempt of CourtSupreme Court of IndiaCivil AppealWater allocationJudicial review

Judgment

STATE OF KARNATAKA     BY5ITS
                    [2018]        1125SECRETARY v. STATE 1125
                              CHIEF
                           S.C.R.
  OF T. N. BY ITS CHIEF SECRETARY [DIPAK MISRA, CJI]

      STATE OF TAMIL NADU REPRESENTED BY THE                            A
      SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT PUBLIC WORKS
                    DEPARTMENT
                                 v.
   SIDDARAMAIAH, CHIEF MINISTER, GOVERNMENT OF
               KARNAKATA & ORS.                                         B

             (Contempt Petition (Civil) No. 225 of 2013
                                 In
                   Civil Appeal No.2456 of 2007)
                                                                        C
                       FEBRUARY 16, 2018
          [DIPAK MISRA CJI, AMITAVA ROY AND
                A. M. KHANWILKAR, JJ.]
      Inter-State Water Disputes:
       Water dispute between States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and        D
Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry – In respect of waters
of river Cauvery – Disposed of by Supreme Court in Civil Appeal
No. 2456 of 2007 – Contempt Petition by State of Tamil Nadu against
the Chief Minister of Karnataka and others – Held: Contempt
petition closed in view of judgment passed in Civil Appeal No. 2456     E
of 2007.
      CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Contempt Petition (Civil)
No. 225 OF 2013
                                 IN
                                                                        F
      Civil Appeal No. 2456 of 2007
      From the Judgment and Order dated 05.02.2007 of the Cauvery
Water Disputes Tribunal at New Delhi under Section 5(2) of the Inter-
State Water Disputes Act, 1956.
      Ranjit Kumar, S.G., Madhusudan R. Naik, Adv. Gen., Fali S.        G
Nariman, S.S. Javali, Jaideep Gupta, Shekhar Naphade, A. S. Nambiar,
Rakesh Dwivedi, Subramonium Prasad, Sr. Advs., Mohan V. Katarki,
S. C. Sharma, Brijesh Kalappa, R.S. Ravi, V. N. Raghupathy, J. M.
Gangadhar, Ranvir Singh, Abdul Azeem Kalebudde, G. Prakash, Jishnu
M. L., Mrs. Priyanka Prakash, Mrs. Beena Prakash, Vijay Shankar,
                                                                        H
                                1125
1126              SUPREME COURT REPORTS                        [2018] 5 S.C.R.


 A     Kunal Chattarjee, Saurabh Gupta, G. Umapathy, C. Paramasivam,
       K.V. Vijayakumar, B. Balaji, S. Wasim A. Qadri, Mrs. Madhavi Diwan,
       Ajay Sharma, Ms. Snidha Mehra, Hemant Arya, Ms. Saudamini Sharma,
       Ms. Kirti Dua, Ms. Somya Rathore, Sumit, D. S. Mahra, M. K. Maroria,
       R. Nedumaran, V.G. Pragasam, S. Prabu Ramasubramanian,
       P. K. Manohar, Ms. Shantha Vasudevan, Manu Sundaram, Ramesh Babu
 B
       M. R., Rajesh Mahale, B. Balaji, A. S. Bhasme, Ms. Aparna Bhat,
       Ms. Supreeta Sharanagouda,, Advs. for the appearing parties.
               The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
             DIPAK MISRA, CJI As we have disposed of Civil Appeal
 C     No. 2456 of 2007, we do not intend to proceed with the Contempt Petition
       against the respondents. It stands closed accordingly.


       Kalpana K. Tripathy                                  Contempt petition closed.

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