Team News Riveting
Vedanta on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court to challenge the Madras High Court order that refused to allow reopening of Sterlite Copper’s smelter unit in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi.
On August 18, the Madras High Court had upheld the May 2018 decision of the Tamil Nadu government to close down Sterlite Copper, a unit of Vedanta group, over allegations of polluting the environment in Thoothukudi, a port town about 610 kms from Chennai.
The Tamil Nadu government had filed caveat in Supreme Court on August 19.
The company had challenged the state government and Tamil Nadu pollution control board’s refusal to reopen the plant, disconnect electricity supply and seal the premises.
After the May 2018 incident in which police fired at protesters killing 13 people, the Tamil Nadu government ordered shutting down the smelter unit citing alleged pollution.
The HC had also rejected Vedanta’s argument that the closure of its copper plant was triggered due to the violence.
Vedanta had consistently denied accusations of pollution, and as soon as the high court verdict was pronounced, a lawyer for the company said it plans to challenge the judgment in the Supreme Court.
The HC order also stated that the Sterlite plant suffers from “zonal disqualification as there is no material to indicate that there was a special industrial and hazardous use zone in the area”, in accordance with the master plan of Thoothukudi. Hence, the location of the plant itself is erroneous.
Tuticorin smelter accounts for 40 percent of the country’s copper smelting capacity besides providing direct and indirect jobs to over 15,000 people.
