NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Karnataka to release at least 2 tmc of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu and warned it of "serious consequences" if it fails to release the water.

The apex court posted Tamil Nadu’s petition for framing of scheme for release of Cauvery water as per the February 16 judgment for hearing on Tuesday. It also asked the Centre to file an affidavit by Tuesday stating the steps taken to frame the scheme.

Attorney general K K Venugopal told the court that the scheme has to be approved by the Cabinet which could not meet because of non-availability of PM, who after coming from foreign visit has gone to Karnataka for election campaign.

AG requested the court to postpone the hearing on this issue to after May 12, the date for Karnataka assembly elections.

TN counsel Shekhar Naphade accused Centre of playing politics over Cauvery water and said such attitude towards TN would amount to end of federalism in the country as well as rule of law.

The counsel said that apart from the summer temperature, the temperature over Cauvery water is rising in TN.

Naphade asked the SC what do we tell people of TN as no scheme is framed even two months of SC judgment on Cauvery water sharing?

Last month, the apex court had asked the Centre to frame a draft scheme by May 3 for the implementation of the judgment on the distribution of Cauvery water between Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry.

During the hearing, the top court had repeatedly told Tamil Nadu that it agrees with its grievances and criticised the Centre for not acting swiftly to frame a scheme.

"You have to frame the scheme and there is no escaping this task," the top court said to the Centre.

The SC was hearing the Centre's plea seeking clarification on the February 16 verdict regarding setting up of a Cauvery management scheme in the decades-old river water sharing dispute.

The apex court, in its verdict, had asked the Centre to formulate a scheme to ensure compliance of its 465-page judgement on the decades-old Cauvery dispute. It modified the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award of 2007 and made it clear that it will not be extending time for this on any ground.

The apex court had on February 16 raised the 270 tmcft share of Cauvery water for Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and reduced Tamil Nadu's share while compensating it by allowing extraction of 10 tmcft groundwater from the river basin, saying the issue of drinking water has to be placed on a "higher pedestal".

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In Video: Cauvery water dispute: SC asks Karnataka to release 2 tmc of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu