Tamil Nadu chief-minister Edapadi K. Palaniswami held discussions with legal experts and high-ranking officials to chalk out the State’s strategy to be adopted when the Cauvery case comes up for hearing on Monday (09th April).

Tamil Nadu moved the Supreme Court by filing a ‘contempt of Court’ petition against the BJP-led Centre on the issue of setting up a Cauvery Management Board (CMB).  The chief-minister’s meeting with legal experts and officials reportedly discussed in detail the strategy to be adopted by the State while arguing the case on Monday.

Replying to the Centre’s plea to explain the word ‘scheme’ in its February 16 verdict, the Supreme Court clarified last week that it only meant an ‘action plan’ or an arrangement but didn’t specifically refer to the setting up of CMB to supervise the Cauvery water-sharing arrangement between TN, Kerala, Karnataka and Puducherry.

Tamil Nadu holds that the Centre has committed the offence of ‘contempt of Court’ by not setting up the CMB by 29th March i.e. within the 6-week period stipulated in the above verdict.  Farmers and political parties across the State have been organizing various protests to pressurize the Centre to set up the CMB.  The meeting held at the State Secretariat yesterday was attended among others by advocates Paramasivam, Vijayakumar, Tamil Nadu’s counsel Vijayanarayanan, deputy chief-minister O. Panneerselvam and chief-secretary Girija Vidyanathan.