Supreme Court to pass order on Mullaperiyar Dam's supervisory committee issue on April 8

In a major development, the Supreme Court of India said that it will be hearing the long-pending Mullaperiyar dam case on Friday, April 8. The 126 years old Mullaperiyar Dam is built on the Periyar river of the Idukki district in Kerala has been a point of dispute between the state of Kerala and Tamil Nadu for a long time.

A 3-judge bench consisting of Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Abhay S Oka, and Justice CT Ravikumar will be hearing the matter again on Friday and the court has earlier indicated that the decision of the supervisory committee will be final. The government of Kerala has said that the issue is not of water but of the safety of the dam. 

Supervisory committee can operate dam: SC

The Supreme court on Tuesday said that the Mullaperiyar can be operated by the supervisory committee until the authority is functional. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre on Tuesday, appealed to the court to let the supervisory committee on Mullaperiyar Dam continue its functioning for one more year till which the Dam Safety Authority, constituted under the Dam Safety Act will be fully functional.

"During the period of one year, when the National Dam Safety Authority becomes fully functional, the Supervisory Committee on Mullaperiyar Dam may continue its functioning as per the existing mandate in regulating the operations of the Mullaperiyar Dam. In order to ensure that the decisions and recommendations being made by the Supervisory Committee are duly complied with by the party States, the Chief Secretaries of the States may be made accountable," the ASG said told the court.

Previous affidavit by Kerala government

The Kerala government had earlier urged the apex court that the proposal to fix the upper rule level of Mullaperiyar dam at 142 feet on September 20 as formulated by Tamil Nadu be avoided.

In its response to the affidavit filed by Kerala, Tamil Nadu had said that “repeated assertion” of Kerala and petitioners from there in the pleas filed from time to time seek to decommission of the existing dam and construction of a new dam, which is “wholly impermissible” in the light of the apex court verdict on the safety of the dam. "The dam has been found to be hydrologically, structurally, and seismically safe,” Tamil Nadu had said.