JUDGMENT :

G.B. PATTANAIK, J.

1. River Krishna originates in the State of Maharashtra and flows down through the State of Karnataka and State of Andhra Pradesh and meets the Bay of Bengal in Andhra Pradesh. It has got several tributaries and in the pre-independence era, there was not much dispute between the then States for sharing water of any inter-State river. Even then, when large-scale projects were taken up in one State, the other riparian States were apprehensive of getting their share of water from the river and it is in this context, for sharing the water of Tungabhadra, another river in the Krishna basin, there was an agreement in 1944, settling the dispute concerning the share of the water of the said River Tungabhadra. After the Constitution of India came into force, the Krishna basin fell within the territories of the States of Bombay, Mysore, Hyderabad and Madras. The States went on planning for erection of big projects for proper utilisation of the waters of the Krishna basin and in July 1951, a memorandum of agreement had been drawn up for apportionment of the available supply of the Krishna river system among the four riparian States namely, the States of Bombay, Hyderabad, Madras and Mysore. It appears that the said memorandum of agreement had been drawn up to remain valid for a period of 25 years and even at that point of time, the State of Mysore refused to ratify the agreement. After implementation of the recommendations of the States Registration Act, in the year 1956, the Krishna basin came to be controlled by the States of Bombay, Mysore and Andhra Pradesh, which became the riparian States. Each of these States became active for exercising their right share over the water of Krishna Valley and the Central Water and Power Commission had drawn up a scheme for reallocation of the Krishna water. That however was not acceptable to the States and no agreement between the States could be reached. Whenever any of the riparian States would come up with major projects, the other States would object to the same. By undertaking the construction of large projects by different States, pressure became more on the available supplies and disputes between the riparian States became more and more bitter. Several objections were raised in relation to Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam Projects in Andhra Pradesh as well as Koyna Project in Maharashtra. The Central Government in 1963 had taken a decision to clear up the pending new projects on the basis that the withdrawal of water by the States of Maharashtra, Mysore and Andhra Pradesh should not exceed 400, 600 and 800 TMC respectively. This decision of the Central Government was not acceptable to the State of Maharashtra and in June 1963, the Maharashtra Government had requested the Government of India for making a reference of the disputes to a tribunal. Between the period of 1963 to 1969, the Central Government tried their best to resolve the disputes between the riparian States by negotiations and holding several inter-State conferences. But it received more number of applications for reference of the dispute in the years 1968 and 1969. Then again, on account of reorganisation of the States and redistribution of the Tungabhadra Valley itself between the States of Mysore and Andhra Pradesh, disputes also arose concerning the validity of the earlier Tungabhadra agreement and the control and distribution of Tungabhadra water. The State of Karnataka is the successor-State of the State of Mysore. Finally on 10-4-1969, the Government of India constituted the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal and called upon the Tribunal for adjudication of the water disputes regarding the inter-State River Krishna and the river valley thereof. The Tribunal was constituted under Section 4 of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”), which Act has been enacted by Parliament in exercise of powers conferred under Article 262 of the Constitution of India. The said Tri