Special leave jurisdiction over inter-State water tribunal awards remains available despite the statutory bar on original dispute adjudication.

Article 262 and Section 11 bar courts from exercising jurisdiction over the original adjudication of an inter-State water dispute, but that exclusion does not extend to a civil appeal by special leave against a tribunal's final decision after adjudication. Article 136 was treated as conferring plenary special leave jurisdiction, and no clear constitutional or statutory language was found to exclude it in this context. Section 6(2) was construed as a legal fiction giving the tribunal's decision the force of a Supreme Court decree for enforcement, not as creating an actual decree of the Court or barring appellate scrutiny. The civil appeals were therefore held maintainable and the objection to maintainability was rejected.

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Issues: Whether civil appeals by special leave against the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal were maintainable in view of Article 262 of the Constitution and Sections 6(2) and 11 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.

Analysis: Article 262 and Section 11 bar the courts from exercising jurisdiction in respect of an original water dispute or complaint concerning the use, distribution or control of inter-State river waters. The bar was held to extend to adjudication of the original dispute but not to an appeal questioning the tribunal's final decision after adjudication. Article 136 confers a plenary special leave jurisdiction on the Supreme Court, and no clear constitutional or statutory language was found to exclude that jurisdiction against a tribunal award. Section 6(2) was construed as a legal fiction enacted to give the tribunal's decision the same force as a Supreme Court decree for enforcement, not to create an actual decree of the Court or to bar appellate scrutiny under Article 136.

Conclusion: The civil appeals were held to be maintainable, and the objection to maintainability was rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: The bar under Article 262 and Section 11 applies to original water disputes or complaints, while Section 6(2) only gives the tribunal's award enforceable force; neither provision excludes the Supreme Court's special leave jurisdiction under Article 136 against the tribunal's final decision.

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