Pages

Thursday, July 25, 2013

TAMIL NADU ASSERTS RIGHTS ON MULLAIPERIYAR

TAMIL NADU ASSERTS RIGHTS ON MULLAIPERIYAR

Tamil Nadu on Wednes­day put its foot down and asserted its rights over the Mullaiperiyar dam in the Supreme Court by ar­guing that the state being the natural successor of the Madras Presidency had become the lessee to the 1886 Mullaiperiyar dam agreement made bet­ween the Presidency and Princely state of Travan­core.Continuing its argumen­ts for the second day be­fo­re the five-judge constitution bench of the SC hearing its petition questioning the law (restricting the dam height to 136ft) passed by Kerala in 2006, TN invoked section 177 of the Government of India Act 1935 and established that it had the right of succession accrued from the 1886 agreement.
Counsel for TN, senior advocate Vinod Bobde argued that as per the 1935 Act, all agreements en­tered into by British India for provinces would be deemed to be made by the provinces and it gave provinces the right for agreements signed by the secretary of the state.Since the 1886 agreement was for Madras province, for which TN is the natural successor, it’s a valid legal agreement and therefore TN becomes leesee and Kerala, which succeeded Travancore, becomes leesor, Bobde told the bench. 


Prof. John Kurakar

No comments: