The Karnataka government filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Monday, seeking a modification to its order from September 20 when it directed the state to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu till September 27. The state said it cannot release water to Tamil Nadu at this time, but is likely to be able to do so by the end of 2016, NDTV reported.

The Karnataka legislature passed a resolution on September 23 that said they cannot release water from the river for anything but drinking water purposes in Bengaluru and other towns and villages that fall in the Cauvery basin. According to the mandate, they cannot release water to Tamil Nadu until their reservoirs have enough in storage, The Indian Express reported.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday about the mandate from the legislature. The state wants the order to be modified so it does not have a set deadline for the number of days it needs to release water. The petition will state that there tends to be a shortfall in release of water from June to September, and Karnataka will release water to Tamil Nadu at the end of the north-east monsoon season in January 2017 depending on quantum of rainfall and the state's needs, officials told The Times of India.

On September 5, the Supreme Court had asked Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water from the Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu, but it later reduced the quantity to 12,000 cusecs. The court verdict had led to widespread protests carried out by farmers in Karnataka, who argued that the state needed the water more that its neighbour. Tamil Nadu had also held a bandh on September 16, with farmers' and traders' bodies saying Tamilians had been targeted by Kannadiga protestors. On September 20, the court arrived at a new figure – 6,000 cusecs – but the Karnataka government refused to carry out the order.