As the original suits relating to the award came up for consideration before a three-judge bench, Justice Chelameswar preferred to withdraw from the hearing. "I will not be part of the bench which would hear these cases,” he said. 

The bench also comprised Justices Shiva Kirti Singh and A M Sapre. The court also asked a host of senior advocates, including F S Nariman, Anil Divan, Rajeev Dhavan, A K Ganguly and Shekhar Naphade, representing various stakeholders in the historic water dispute, to mention the matter before Chief Justice T S Thakur for listing of the cases before some other bench.

It then adjourned the matters and posted them for hearing after two weeks. The Cauvery Tribunal, in a unanimous decision in 2007, had determined the total availability of water in the Cauvery basin at 740 thousand million cubic (tmc) feet at the Lower Coleroon Anicut site, including 14 tmcft for environmental protection and seepage into the sea. 

The final award made an annual allocation of 419 tmcft to Tamil Nadu in the entire Cauvery basin, 270 tmcft to Karnataka, 30 tmcft to Kerala and 7 tmcft to Puducherry.