Karnataka is considering approaching the Supreme Court against the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee’s order to release 6,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu, Water Resources Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy said in Bengaluru on September 8, 2026.
The minister described the order as unreasonable and said Karnataka’s officials had argued before the committee that inflows into the Cauvery basin had declined significantly over the past week. Tamil Nadu had sought 17,000 cusecs of water, but the committee ordered a daily release of 6,000 cusecs, according to the minister’s statement reported by Prajavani.
Cheluvarayaswamy said Karnataka was facing a distress situation in which releasing even 6,000 cusecs would be difficult. He added that the state was making sustained efforts to avoid releasing any water, while asserting that the decision on further legal action would be taken after discussions with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The minister said the government was seriously considering filing an application before the Supreme Court as early as September 9. He criticised what he described as a lack of understanding of ground-level conditions among constitutional and administrative bodies operating from Delhi. He also said similar orders had been issued in the past without adequately assessing the situation on the ground.
Karnataka’s position is linked to the competing demands on water stored in its reservoirs. Cheluvarayaswamy said approximately 50% of the water currently available in the reservoirs had been reserved exclusively for drinking-water purposes. The minister did not provide reservoir-wise storage figures or specify the total quantity covered by this reserve.
He said water was being supplied to farmers according to their needs through the Bhadra and Upper Krishna Project systems. The state had also released water through a river to prevent drinking-water problems in the Chitradurga region, he said.
According to the minister, reservoir releases were being managed in a controlled manner to fill lakes and prevent difficulties for residents and livestock. The statement did not provide details of the committee’s order period, the location of the concerned reservoirs or the proposed legal grounds for Karnataka’s application.
The proposed Supreme Court action would add a fresh legal step to the continuing dispute over the allocation and release of Cauvery water between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The immediate next step identified by the state government is a discussion between the minister and the chief minister, followed by a possible application before the Supreme Court on September 9.
