The Supreme court on Monday rejected Tamil Nadu government’s plea against an Empowered Committee on Mullaperiyar’s dam safety, headed by the former Chief Justice of India A S Anand, and said it (the committee) would start functioning from April 30.

After hearing senior counsel K Parasaran and Harish Salve for Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments respectively, a five-judge Constitution Bench, in a brief order said: “In our view, no ground has been made
out for recall of our order. Accordingly the application is dismissed.”

The Bench included Justices D K Jain, B Sudershan Reddy, Mukundakam Sharma, R M Lodha and Deepak Verma. The Bench also took strong exception to the Centre’s application seeking a modification of the
order to the effect that the committee’s expenses be shared by both States, and not by the Centre.

“It is shocking to say that the Centre has no funds to bear the expenses. It is an order passed by the Supreme Court and the Centre filing such an application is never heard off,” said Justice Jain.