New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied interim relief to mining giant Vedanta Limited by refusing to let quick re-opening of its Sterlite Copper smelting plant at Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi.
The plant has been shut due to the fact May 2018 soon after a police firing killed 13 men and women for the duration of a protest against environmental pollution allegedly brought on by the plant.
A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Rohinton F Nariman, posted the matter for a detailed hearing in January 2021. The bench was hearing a plea filed by Vedanta against a Madras High Court order refusing to let re-opening of the plant.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Vedanta, argued that wastage of national sources can be stopped by enabling a brief 3-month run of the plant.
“This plant started in 1997, it was providing job to 4,000 people, and indirectly to 20,000 people and trickle-down dependants are more than 2 lakh”, Singhvi mentioned, adding that its supplying 36 per cent of the country’s copper wants.
Now, post the closure of the plant, India is becoming dependant on copper imports, he mentioned. There is a preconceived choice to not let the plant to run, Singhvi contended.
The senior counsel mentioned that NEERI had created an environmental influence report and gave 30 suggestions, 2012 report shows compliance of 29 out of 30.
The counsel, appearing for the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, submitted that Vedanta is attempting to mislead the court and added that the business has been polluting.
The order passed by the Tamil Nadu government was for the permanent closure of the Sterlite plant and circumstances have worsened soon after the court permitted them to get started partial operations, the counsel told the court.
The Tamil Nadu government submitted that reports of the pollution handle board clearly show the plant has been regularly polluting. At this stage, interim arrangements to reopen the plant can’t be offered specifically due to the fact the High Court had upheld the Board’s order for closing the plant, the counsel of the state government mentioned.
The Madras High Court had, on August 18, refused to let the reopening of the plant in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi, which has remained closed due to the fact April 2018 and disposed of the plea filed by Vedanta difficult the closure of the plant.