Polity · 4 Aug 2026

Cauvery Water Management Authority CWMA

Consider the following Assertion (A) and Reason (R): Assertion (A): Despite the Supreme Court's 2018 verdict establishing the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC), disputes between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over Cauvery water sharing have continued to recur. Reason (R): Article 262 of the Constitution empowers Parliament to exclude inter-state river water disputes from the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court entirely, leaving such disputes to be resolved solely through direct political negotiation between the concerned states. Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above Assertion (A) and Reason (R)?

ABoth A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A
BBoth A and R are true but R is NOT the correct explanation of A
CA is true but R is false
DA is false but R is true

Tests precise legal scope of a constitutional provision (Article 262) against a plausible but subtly incorrect characterisation of its mechanism - requiring analytical distinction, not mere recall.

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This question is based on: Karnataka Built the Institutions to End the Cauvery Fight. The Fight Didn't Notice.
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About this question

Why in news

The CWRC's order for Karnataka to release 3,500 cusecs daily to Tamil Nadu has triggered a political standoff, a planned bandh and inter-state ministerial accusations, despite the 2018 institutional framework.

Why for UPSC

Assertion-Reasoning questions on Article 262 test a commonly confused point - that the article enables tribunal-based statutory adjudication, not a complete handover to informal political negotiation, a distinction UPSC has probed in the context of inter-state disputes.

Prelims summary

Article 262 allows Parliament to exclude inter-state river water disputes from all courts' jurisdiction and route them through statutory tribunals (e.g., under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956) - not through pure political negotiation. The CWMA/CWRC (2018) implement the Supreme Court-modified Cauvery award but cannot resolve underlying political trust deficits.

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