A lease of 1886, a reservoir level of 142 feet and a three-member committee: the dam Kerala is back in court over

Background

Kerala said on 2 November that it will file a special petition in the Supreme Court to get that court's judgment of 2024, which allowed a detailed safety inspection of the Mullaperiyar dam, carried out, and Water Resources Minister Mons Joseph added that the State will ask the Centre to step in on the long dispute with Tamil Nadu. The dam is built across the Periyar, and Tamil Nadu draws its water. Tamil Nadu's rights over the water of the existing dam rest on a lease deed signed in 1886 and on agreements of 1970. The Supreme Court decided the dispute in Original Suit No. 3 of 2006 by its judgment of 7 May 2014. To meet Kerala's fears about safety when the full reservoir level was restored to 142 feet, that judgment constituted a three-member Supervisory Committee. One member comes from the Central Water Commission and one each from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and the Central Water Commission's representative chairs it. The same judgment set out, as one of the steps on the way to a new dam, that the existing dam would be strengthened by the measures the Central Water Commission suggests, dam-safety requirements among them.