Kerala and Tamil Nadu Again in Supreme Court Over The Law On Dams

14 August 2013
New Delhi

Kerala on Tuesday asserted in the Supreme Court that the 2006 law only created a statutory framework for regulating water level in respect of dams within the State and it would not amount to usurpation of judicial power.

Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for Kerala, made this submission before a five-judge Constitution Bench of Justices R.M. Lodha, H.L. Dattu, C.K. Prasad, Madan B. Lokur and M.Y. Eqbal, hearing the suit filed by Tamil Nadu challenging the law enacted by Kerala to prevent raising the water level in the dam beyond 136 ft.

Mr. Salve said “the law, in pith and substance, creates a statutory framework for regulating the water level in respect of dams within the State, both scheduled and non-scheduled. It establishes a statutory authority, which confers upon it the power to take certain measures in the interest of public safety. There is nothing in the 2006 judgment of this court, which would suggest that the Kerala Legislature lacked the power to make measures for a public safety in relation to reservoirs situated within the State. The question of these provisions being tainted by the vice of usurpation of judicial power does not arise.”

Mr. Salve refuted the contention that the legislation was the usurpation of judicial powers. He said such a contention was misconceived. He said “A court through the process of adjudication renders findings and adjudication is always as per law in force. Once the law in force is altered, the adjudication cannot stand on its own. A court’s decision binds unless the conditions on which it is based are so fundamentally altered that the decision could not have been given in the altered circumstances. One of the methods adopted by the legislature is to give its own meaning and interpretation of the law, and by legislative fiat make such interpretation binding on the courts.”

Source– http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/kerala-law-wont-amount-to-usurpation-of-judicial-power/article5019780.ece

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