High-placed sources of Govt. of Tamil Nadu in New Delhi have indicated that the State might be forced to file a 'contempt of Court' petition with the Supreme Court against the BJP-led Centre if it didn't constitute a Cauvery Management Board by tomorrow (29th March) as per the guidelines issued last month by the apex Court.

Delivering a telling verdict on 16th February while taking up appeals filed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry challenging the 2007 verdict of the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal, the apex Court ruled that the Centre should constitute a Cauvery Management Board (within six weeks from the date of verdict) to supervise the Cauvery water-sharing arrangement between these States.

Though the above verdict reduced Tamil Nadu's share of water from 192 TMC to 177.25 TMC, Tamil farmers in particular and Tamils in general were hoping that the setting up of the Cauvery Board would permanently resolve the water-sharing row.  However, the Centre holds that the Court was in favour of setting up only a supervisory committee and not a Board to supervise the water-sharing process.

Now that the apex Court's deadline of six weeks concludes tomorrow (29th March), State PWD Secretary Prabhakar and Cauvery Technical Committee's chief-engineer Subramanian held consultations with leading legal luminaries in New Delhi to discuss further course of action on the issue.

After the said consultations lasting for a few hours, Tamil Nadu Govt.'s senior counsel Sekar Napte has reportedly sounded the State Govt. about the possibility of filing a 'contempt of Court' petition against the Centre if the Board is not set up by tomorrow.