Difficult to maintain law & order if SC passes non-implementable orders'

Bengaluru, Oct 1: In the wake of the Supreme Court ticking off Karnataka for repeatedly flouting its orders to release Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said if “they (SC) keep on passing non-implementable orders, it will be very difficult to maintain law and order in the country.”

“It was a big setback for Karnataka, as orders given by the Supreme Court to the state, are not based on ground realities. But howsoever we try to convince the apex court, it appears that the bench hearing the case without any verification of how much water there is and how much Karnataka needs, on Friday passed an adverse judgment, said Kharge, who is the Member of Parliament from Gulbarga.

He told ANI that what left Karnataka most shocked was the apex court's order to the Centre to constitute the Cauvery Water Management Board by October 4.

“It is something that was neither in the prayer of Tamil Nadu, nor had the people of Tamil Nadu demanded it. And, it now seems to me that if they keep on passing non-implementable orders, then it will be very difficult to maintain law and order in the country.”

Emphasizing that he was not talking about one state, the senior Congress leader said, “Whenever there is an inter-state dispute, then there is a need to consider ground realities before passing an order.”

Appealing to the apex court to treat states with respect, Kharge said, “We respect the Supreme Court and the apex court needs to respect the states, because we are in a federal system of governance; there is one Constitution and we all respect it and try to uphold it. We have no intention of rejecting the apex court's order or not to accept it. We accept the order, but when there is water.”

He told ANI, that “there is a meeting at 2 p.m. on Saturday, where the court's decision and the measures suggested by (Fali) Nariman Sahab will be discussed and the future course of action will be decided.”

The Supreme Court on Friday asked Karnataka to discharge 6,000 cusecs water from Saturday till October 6, while warning that “no one would know when the wrath of the law' would fall on it”.

It ordered all the stakeholders — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pudduchery — to give names by 4 pm on Saturday of their representatives to be included in the board, which would be chaired by the Union Water Resources Minister.

The apex court gave the last opportunity to the Siddaramiah government to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu from October 1-6, despite a unanimous resolution passed by both house of Assembly.

The court noted that despite being a state, Karnataka is flouting the order and creating a situation when the majesty of law is dented, adding that the court would have proceeded to take steps for strict compliance of the order, but it had directed the Cauvery Water Management Board to first study the ground realities and submit a report.