The Supreme Court on Friday clothed its supervisory committee with the powers and functions of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) under the Dam Safety Act of 2021 as an interim arrangement to take care of the safety and maintenance of the 126-year-old Mullaperiyar dam.
“We deem it appropriate to accede to the request of the parties to strengthen the supervisory committee until the regular NDSA becomes functional in terms of Section 8 of the Dam Safety Act, so that until such time the reconstituted supervisory committee would be in a position to discharge all the functions and also exercise all the powers otherwise required to be exercised by the NDSA for ensuring safety of the dam as also for the prevention of the dam failure-related disasters,” a three-judge Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar stated.
The supervisory committee, teethed with more powers and reach, will continue to be in existence until a permanent NDSA comes into existence under the 2021 Act and takes over from it
