In Brief
Tamil Nadu sought to stop Karnataka from constructing check dams on the Pennaiyar River, an inter-State river, claiming they violated riparian rights and an 1892 agreement. Tamil Nadu filed an original suit in 2018 and formally requested the Central Government to constitute an Inter-State Water Disputes Tribunal in 2019. The Supreme Court held that after negotiations between the states failed, the Central Government is statutorily obliged under Section 4 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 to constitute a tribunal. The Court directed the government to establish the tribunal within one month, disposing of the suit while keeping all substantive issues—riparian rights, interim reliefs, and the validity of the historical agreement—for tribunal adjudication.
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