Tamil Nadu: Appeal made to Supreme Court for early hearing of Mullaperiyar Dam case
Tamil Nadu: A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant said on Wednesday that it will consider the Tamil Nadu government’s appeal in the Supreme Court seeking an early hearing of the Mullaperiyar Dam case.
Several petitions are pending in the Supreme Court, including one filed by Tamil Nadu in 2021 alleging that Kerala was obstructing the maintenance and strengthening work at the Mullaperiyar Dam.
Since these petitions have not been heard for a long time, the Tamil Nadu government appealed to the Supreme Court before Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi.
On May 7, 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that the water level at the Mullaperiyar Dam could be raised to 142 feet.
In that decision, the Supreme Court also ordered that Kerala provide full cooperation to Tamil Nadu in the maintenance work at the Mullaperiyar Dam.
In this situation, Tamil Nadu has filed a case in the Supreme Court, alleging that Kerala is obstructing the maintenance work on the Mullaperiyar Dam. The Kerala government has halted the dam strengthening work. Tamil Nadu has made several allegations in the petition, alleging that the dam strengthening could not be carried out due to the lack of permission from the Kerala government.
Despite the Supreme Court’s decisions of 27.02.2006 and 07.05.2014 allowing Tamil Nadu to carry out the Mullaperiyar Dam strengthening work, the decision could not be implemented due to Kerala’s obstruction.
Timely orders issued by the Supreme Court, especially those for strengthening the Baby Dam and Main Dam, could not be implemented due to the Kerala government’s obstructionist attitude.
Permission to cut trees in the dam area is still pending. Because of this, the work to strengthen the Baby Dam and the Main Dam, as ordered by the Supreme Court in its judgments dated February 27, 2006, and May 7, 2014, is being delayed.
Therefore, Kerala should be ordered to implement the Supreme Court’s judgments dated February 27, 2006, and May 7, 2014, and the guidelines and procedures of the newly constituted Monitoring Committee within the stipulated timeframe, the Tamil Nadu government stated in the petition. In this situation, several cases have been filed in the Supreme Court, including one by Joe Joseph of Kerala, claiming that the Mullaperiyar Dam is weak and that a new dam should be built in place of the existing dam.
All these petitions are pending in the Supreme Court.
