The Supreme Court on Friday asked if the States of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and

Karnataka could amicably settle their quarrel over the allocation of the Krishna river water.
“Why don’t you settle through mediation,” Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana asked senior
advocate Shyam Diwan, appearing for Karnataka. Mr. Diwan, however, said some of the
questions involved in the case required adjudication and final determination.
The senior lawyer urged the CJI, in a mentioning, to constitute a Bench soon. The CJI
assured he would look into the request. On January 10, a Bench of Justices D.Y.
Chandrachud and A.S. Bopanna, which was earlier assigned the case, had both recused.
Justice Chandrachud is from Maharashtra and Justice Bopanna hailed from Karnataka.“We
do not want to be targets of invective,” Justice Chandrachud had said then. Some of the
lawyers had pointed out that the court was hearing the dispute for the past two to three years.
The Bench had, however, ordered the court registry to place it before a Bench in which
neither Justices Chandrachud nor Bopanna were members after getting the consent of the
Chief Justice of India. The Supreme Court hearing had seen verbal battles among the States,
with Telangana submitting that there was no information forthcoming from Karnataka for the
past 14 years about how much Krishna River water it had diverted.
In turn, Karnataka had argued that a lot of water was going to waste, “flowing down into the
ocean” and there was a need to harness it for irrigation and to replenish dry regions.
Karnataka had sought the vacation of a November 16, 2011 order of the Supreme Court
which stopped the Centre from publishing in the Official Gazette the final order of the X
pronounced in December 2010, allocating the river water to Karnataka, erstwhile Andhra
Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Q1. The water of the _ reservoir is the main storage for river water between the two states of
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Name the reservoir.
1. Periyar water reservoir
2. Srisailam reservoir
3. Krishna Raja Sagara reservoir
4. Banasura Sagar
Difficulty level – Moderate
Information-
The Srisailam Dam is constructed across the Krishna River in Nagarkurnool district ,
Telangana and Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh near Srisailam temple town and is the 2nd
largest capacity working hydroelectric station in the country. Srisailam reservoir, serving as
lower level reservoir, has potential to install nearly 77,000 MW high head pumped storage
hydroelectric plants on its right side.
Q2. Krishna is the second biggest river in peninsular India. Name the biggest river of
peninsular India.
1. Narmada
2. Kaveri
3. Mahanadi
4. Godavari
Difficulty level – Easy
Information-
Krishna river originates near Mahabaleshwar (Satara) in Maharashtra. It is the second biggest
river in peninsular India after the Godavari River. It runs from four states Maharashtra (303
km), North Karnataka (480 km) and the rest of its 1300 km journey in Telangana and Andhra
Pradesh before it empties into the Bay of Bengal.
Godavari is India's second longest river after the Ganga and third largest in India. It is also
the biggest river of peninsular India and had been dubbed as the Dakshina Ganga. Its source
is in Trimbakeshwar, Nashik, Maharashtra and flow into the Bay of Bengal.
Q3. Name the article of the Constitution which provides for the adjudication of inter-state
water disputes.
1. Article 266
2. Article 272
3. Article 262
4. Article 186
Difficulty level – Easy
Information-
Article 262 deals with the Adjudication of disputes relating to waters of inter-State rivers or
river valleys. Furthermore, it also contains the following provisions:
 Parliament may by law provide for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint with
respect to the use, distribution or control of the waters of, or in, any inter-State river
or river valley
 Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, Parliament may by law provide that
neither the Supreme Court nor any other court shall exercise jurisdiction in respect of
any such dispute or complaint as is referred to in the above clause.
Q4. Name the tribunal X as mentioned in the last paragraph .
1. Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT)
2. Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal II (KWDT)
3. Inter-State Water Disputes Tribunal
4. National Tribunal For Water Dispute Management.
Difficulty level – moderate
Information-
Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal: In 1969, the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT)
was set up under the Inter-State River Water Dispute Act, 1956, and presented its report in
1973. At the same time, it was stipulated that the KWDT order may be reviewed or revised
by a competent authority or tribunal any time after 31st May, 2000.
Second KWDT: The second KWDT was instituted in 2004. It delivered its report in 2010,
which made allocations of the Krishna water at 65 % dependability and for surplus flows as
follows: 81 TMC for Maharashtra, 177 TMC for Karnataka, and 190 TMC for Andhra
Pradesh. After the KWDT’s 2010 report: Andhra Pradesh challenged it through a Special
Leave Petition before the Supreme Court in 2011. In 2013, the KWDT issued a ‘further
report’, which was again challenged by Andhra Pradesh in the Supreme Court in 2014.
Q5. Name the act which empowers the Central government to set up an ad hoc tribunal for
the adjudication of a dispute between two or more states in relation to the waters of an inter-
state river or river valley.
1. The Inter-State River Water Disputes Act (1956).
2. The River Water Board Act (1956).
3. The River Boards Act (1956).
4. The Inter-State River Board Act (1956).
Difficulty level – Moderate
Information-
The Interstate River Water Disputes Act, 1956 (IRWD Act) is an Act of the Parliament of
India enacted under Article 262 of Constitution of India on the eve of reorganization of states
on linguistic basis to resolve the water disputes that would arise in the use, control and
distribution of an interstate river or river valley. IRWD Act is applicable only to interstate
rivers / river valleys. An action of one state should affect the interests of one or more other
states. Then only water dispute is deemed to have arisen under IRWD Act (section 3). It can
be divided into two independent parts for clarity purpose in understanding the techno-legal
application of IRWD Act.