The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the green tribunal's order of setting aside the Tamil Nadu government's decision to close Vedanta’s Sterlite copper plant at Tuticorin, much to the shock of people in Tamil Nadu.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the green tribunal's order of setting aside the Tamil Nadu government's decision to close Vedanta’s Sterlite copper plant at Tuticorin, much to the shock of people in Tamil Nadu.
The Sterlite plant was closed following people's protests which reached a crescendo and subsequent shooting of unarmed protesters in which 13 lives were lost, on May 22 last year. Immediately thereafter, the Tamil Nadu government closed the plant based on the report submitted by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.
Following an appeal by the Vedanta group before the National Green Tribunal, an expert committee headed by Justice Dharun Agarwal carried out an inspection of the plant and submitted the report before the NGT, following which the NGT allowed the Vedanta group to reopen the Sterlite plant with 25 mandatory conditions.
The appeal against the NGT order was filed by the Tamil Nadu government asking for the Vedanta group to be stopped from resuming its operations of the Sterlite Plant. The TN government had contended that the NGT should not let the committee inspect the Sterlite premises in Thoothukudi and submit a report, thus facilitating its reopening.
Arguing that the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board had inspected the Sterlite plant and studied the pollution caused by it, there was no need for the NGT-appointed committee to go into the issue again, the TN government had sought a stay order against the functioning of the committee.
However, the Supreme Court which heard the appeal refused to stay the NGT- committee from inspecting the Sterlite plant to submit a report before the National Green Tribunal.