Will consult legal experts on appealing against Cauvery verdict: TN CM

The Tamil Nadu Government would go through the Supreme Court verdict, reducing the quantum of Cauvery water for the state, and consult legal experts as regards going for an appeal, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said here on Sunday.

“As far as the appeal is concerned, the Tamil Nadu government will take action after going through the verdict and consulting legal experts,” he said in response to reporters queries. The chief minister added that even though the apex courts decision to reduce the quantum of water to Tamil Nadu from the inter-state river was disappointing, certain other rulings of the court, such as no state could claim ownership to rivers, were welcome.

The Supreme Court had, while delivering its verdict on the vexed Cauvery river dispute on Friday, said the water of a river was a “national asset” and a beneficial gift of nature and that no state could claim “exclusive ownership” over it or deprive others.

The court had also said the water of the inter-state river was common and equal to all, through whose land it ran, and that no one could obstruct or divert it.

Delivering its verdict on the dispute involving the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, besides Kerala and Puducherry, the court had raised the 270 tmcft share of Cauvery water for Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and reduced the share of Tamil Nadu.

It had compensated Tamil Nadu by allowing it to extract 10 tmcft of groundwater from the river basin, saying the issue of drinking water had to be placed on a “higher pedestal”.