Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Friday affirmed the Supreme Court that they would get instructions from the Centre. The top court was hearing a writ petition filed by the Karnataka government alleging that the Union government was denying the state financial assistance for drought management.
The bench comprising Justice BR Gavai and Justice Sandeep Mehta gave time to the Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the state to obtain instructions and make a statement. The bench was initially inclined to issue formal notice to the Centre.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Karnataka, pressed that under law, the Centre is required to take a final decision on the assistance to the State from the NDRF within a month of the receipt of the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT). Nonetheless, that period was over in December, 2023. He also noted that the Election Commission was seeking to be made a party.
Responding, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated that if instead of filing a petition under Article 32, had someone spoken to the authorities on some level, the problem could have been solved.
Intervening at this point, Justice BR Gavai said to the counsels that there should not be a contest. He also remarked that the Court was seeing various states approaching it for relief. The Solicitor General also urged that the court may not issue formal notice, saying it also becomes news. Considering the request, the matter was posted to Monday after 2 weeks.
Karnataka had lodged a writ petition before the Supreme Court alleging that the Central government was denying financial assistance for drought management to the state under Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the Manual for drought management.
In the petition, the Karnataka government urged the Supreme Court to direct the Centre to forthwith take a final decision and release the financial assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to the state.