TN is facing severe drought, observes Madras HC after banning Cola giants from using river water

In a move that is likely to hit beverage giants Coca Cola and PepsiCo where it hurts, the Madras High Court has passed an interim order directing that water from the river Tamirabarani must not be diverted to the bottling plants of the two cola giants in Gangaikondan..A Bench of Justices S Nagamuthu and MV Muralidharan passed the order disallowing river water to the bottling plants for two months from November 21 this year due to the severe water shortage in the area..The petition was a PIL filed by the Secretary of the Tirunelveli District Consumer Protection Association, advocate DA Prabhakar..Senior Advocate Aswin Raja Simman and Lajapathy Roy appeared for the petitioner, while advocates Aayiram Selvakumar and Adithya Vijayalayan represented the Tamil Nadu government..The counsel for the petitioners had contended that in addition to the acute shortage of drinking water and the paucity of water for irrigation, a variety of spotted deer in the area was also affected by the water shortage..Reflecting Tamil Nadu’s stand in the Cauvery petition, the Bench also noted that,.“Undoubtedly, it is crystal clear that now the whole State of Tamil Nadu is under severe drought, due to failure of the monsoons and it is an accepted fact that almost all the reservoirs in the State of Tamil Nadu are the victims of failure of monsoons and there is no sufficient water.”.The Madras High Court, in passing the order, relied primarily on the Supreme Court’s decision in MC Mehta, which reiterated the Public Trust Doctrine, holding that,. “Certain resources like air, sea, water and forests have such a great importance to the people as a whole and that it would be wholly unjustified to make them a subject of private ownership.”.It thereby restrained the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu from supplying river water to the bottling plants, as well as for manufacturing soft drinks, and mineral water..Read the order below.