Bangalore: The State Government, based on the advice of a group of legal experts, has decided to file an original suit on the Cauvery dispute in the Supreme Court. It will also file a special leave petition before the court challenging the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, which the Government has termed unacceptable. The State Cabinet on Thursday discussed the views of the legal experts, including those of Advocate-General Uday Holla, and the unanimous opinion was that the State should launch a three-pronged approach: file an original suit and a special leave petition before the Supreme Court and a petition before the tribunal seeking clarifications on the final award.

Meanwhile, the one-day legislature session preceding the budget session, which was to have discussed the tribunal award and the steps to be taken to protect the interests of the State, has been called off.

Sources told The Hindu that the original suit to be filed under Article 131 of the Constitution would enable the State to seek a fresh adjudication on the allocation of Cauvery waters among the four riparian States. It was mentioned that this option was available to the State and the pros and cons of filing such a suit had been deliberated at length by the legal experts. The special leave petition will be filed under Article 136 of Constitution.

Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs M.P. Prakash said the State Government would first file the two petitions in the Supreme Court and then file the clarification petition before the tribunal.

As such, the State Government had 90 days to appeal for any clarification on the final award announced on February 5. The notice period for an original suit was 60 days.

Mr. Prakash said that the petition before the tribunal would be filed under Section 5 (3) of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, seeking clarifications and guidance on its order, which allocated 270 tmcft of water to Karnataka, besides directing it to ensure the release of 192 tmcft of water annually to Tamil Nadu, which was allocated a total share of 419 tmcft.

In its petition, the State Government is expected to raise questions relating to groundwater available in the Cauvery delta, the calculation of the quantum of water flowing into the Bay of Bengal, the water set apart for environmental safeguards and so on. It will question the allocation water from the Kabini to Tamil Nadu, particularly the direction to release Kerala's share of water (which is unused since Kerala had no reservoir in the Cauvery basin).

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