The Tamil Nadu government will challenge in the Supreme Court the amendments made to the Kerala [Images] Irrigation and Water Conservation Act, 2003, on raising the storage level in Mullaiperiyar Dam.

The Kerala assembly had on Thursday unanimously passed a bill amending the law to retain the water level in Mullaiperiyar Dam at 136 feet in the wake of the Supreme Court order allowing Tamil Nadu to raise the level to 142 ft.

Alleging that the whole exercise of the Kerala government was to nullify the orders of the court, an official release in Chennai said Tamil Nadu would ask the apex court to direct the Kerala government to implement in toto the orders passed by it on February 27.

"In order to safeguard the interests of the farmers of Tamil Nadu and to ensure that the orders of the Supreme Court in raising the level of the Mullaiperiyar Dam from the temporarily brought down level of 136 ft to 142 ft and to carrying out further strengthening measures, the state government had decided to move the Supreme Court to challenge the amendment," the release added.