In a Supreme Court filing on 7 October 2026, Karnataka pointed to India's own changed-circumstances stand on the 1960 treaty as precedent for revisiting river-water arrangements.

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• Karnataka told the Supreme Court on 7 October 2026 that it reserves the right to seek reopening of the Cauvery allocation, calling it inequitable under changed circumstances.
• It cited the Union government's position on the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, which India has sought to modify on changed circumstances, as an example of water-sharing deals being revisited.
• The Indus Waters Treaty was signed on 19 September 1960 in Karachi after nine years of negotiation brokered by the World Bank, with Jawaharlal Nehru and Ayub Khan as signatories.
• It gives Pakistan the western rivers, Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, and India the eastern rivers, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.
• The treaty created the Permanent Indus Commission, with disputes escalating to a Neutral Expert and then a Court of Arbitration.
• India served a notice under Article XII(3) on 25 January 2023 seeking modification of the treaty, reinforced in September 2024.
• On 23 April 2025, a day after the Pahalgam attack, India placed the treaty in abeyance, citing fundamental changes in circumstances.
• The Court of Arbitration at The Hague has held that the treaty remains in force, while India rejects its jurisdiction.
• Pakistan argues the treaty has no suspension clause and permits modification only by mutual agreement.
• The Cauvery dispute has its own colonial-era roots, in an agreement between the then Mysore and Madras governments that was reviewed in 1924.
• Karnataka also called 2026-27 a distress water year after the failure of the southwest monsoon.

Tags: IndusWatersTreaty, CauveryDispute, WaterSharing