The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to apprise it on May 8 about the steps taken for setting up of Cauvery Management Board for implementation of its judgement on the distribution of river water among Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry.

The Centre, on its part, asked the apex court to hear the matter a day after the Karnataka polls, on the ground that the draft scheme has to be put before the Union Cabinet for approval. Attorney General K K Venugopal told a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues are busy campaignings in Karnataka and hence the draft could not be placed before the Union Cabinet.

Reacting to this, Senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for Tamil Nadu said, this is the end of co-operative federalism and the rule of law in the country. The bench initially asked the Karnataka government to release four TMC of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu by May 8, but later directed the state to appraise it as to how much water can be released.

Earlier the apex court said once the Centre places the draft scheme, which would also include Cauvery Water Management Board and Monitoring Authority, it would consider the grievances of all the stakeholder states.