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A three member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Monday allowed Sterlite Copper to carry out the upkeep of the plant at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu. The plant has been closed since 2018 following protests against the plant on environmental concerns.
The first Bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala was hearing an application filed by the company seeking reliefs from the Supreme Court to ensure proper upkeep of the plant. It considered the report of the High Powered Expert Committee (HPC) and recommendations of the State government to grant the permission.
On March 6, 2023, the Additional Chief Secretary of the State government sent a communication to the District Collector, Thoothukudi district, which permitted to proceed with the various actions, including evacuation of remaining gypsum. The required manpower as requested by the unit was also permitted.
Submitting proposal
The unit shall submit a detailed proposal and time schedule including the man power, machineries, number of trucks required for removal of the remaining gypsum. Once the evacuation of the gypsum is over, the manpower and the machineries permitted for that purpose should be withdrawn.
To undertake the green belt maintenance and to clear the wild bushes and dried trees, the same shall be carried out under the supervision of BDO, Ottapidaram. The activities shall be carried out under the supervision of the Local Level Monitoring Committee.
The District Collector had not recommended activities undertaking civil and structural safety/integrity assessment study in the plant premises; removal and transportation of spares/equipment and evacuation of in-process reverts and other raw materials lying idle in the premises of the plant/stores.
CS Vaidyanathan, Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the Tamil Nadu government, said that the State government will once again evaluate whether any further or supplementary directions should be issued in that regard.
Darius Khambata, Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of Vedanta submitted that having due regard to the serious deficiencies, which were reported by the HPC, there is no reason the other steps as proposed by the Committee should not be taken. The petitioner states that it is willing to undertake those activities at its own costs.
The matter is now posted for further hearing on May 4, 2023.
A Sumathi, Chief Operating Officer, Sterlite Copper, in a release said, as the court considered the report of the HPC and the recommendations of the State Government, the company looks forward to carrying out the upkeep activities at the plant.
Following the closure of the unit that used to contribute 40 per cent of domestic copper production, India has become a net importer of the metal crucial for India’s energy transition from being a net exporter earlier.
Earlier in the month, the Ministry of Home Affairs informed the Rajya Sabha that it was examining complaints against certain NGOs for misusing foreign funds to organise protests around the Vedanta Sterlite copper plant in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu, the release said.
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