SC junks plea seeking relief for damage during Cauvery riots

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking compensation for damage to properties caused during the agitation in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over sharing Cauvery water in September-October last.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi dismissed a PIL filed by Kanyakumari-resident P Shivashankar.

“Since we are already hearing the civil appeals, there is peace in the area...we are not inclined to hear it,” the bench told advocate Reegan S Bell, representing the petitioner.
The court, however, said the question of law in the petition is kept open.

The apex court had earlier on September 15 asked both the states not to allow any agitation over sharing of Cauvery river water.

The petitioner had then sought direction to both the states to take immediate preventive steps to check violence and damage to private and public properties due to agitation.

The court had also reminded both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to keep in mind guidelines issued by a three-judge bench in 2009 in ‘Destruction of Public and Private Property Vs State of Andhra Pradesh’ case which, among others, mandated the states, if the agitation spreads, to submit a report suo motu to the apex court about action initiated.