Madras HC refuses to allow reopening of Sterlite plant in TN's Thoothukudi

Vedanta Limited had moved the court challenging the state government's closure order against its Sterlite Copper Plant on May 28, 2018

The Madras High Court (HC) on Tuesday refused to allow the reopening of Vedanta-owned Sterlite Copper’s smelting plant in Thoothukudi. 

The court dismissed all 10 petitions filed by Vedanta. One plea challenged the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board’s (TNPCB) April 9, 2018 order rejecting the renewal of consent to operate the plant. The government’s decision to close the plant was also challenged. 

The state government’s decision came after 13 people were shot dead by the police on May 22, 2018 during a protest. While the company said it was a knee-jerk reaction by the local administration, the state government alleged that the plant violated environment laws. 

Vedanta has claimed a loss of close to Rs 5 crore a day on account of closure of the plant. A back-of-the-envelope calculation pegs the loss between Rs 3,500 crore and Rs 4,000 crore, with the factory having stayed shut for nearly 790 days. 

After hearing a marathon argument for 36 days from all sides, the Madras HC’s divisional Bench had reserved its order in January this year. Finally, the order was passed by Justices T S Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan on Tuesday. 

In the 815-page order, the court dismissed all 10 petitions and upheld the TNPCB and state government’s orders. On Vedanta’s argument that India’s economy was hit by high imports and demand for copper could not be met, the court said that when the economy was pitted against the environment, the latter would reign supreme. 

Therefore, economic considerations would have no role to play while deciding the sustainability of a highly polluting industry, and the only consideration would be with regard to safeguarding the environment. 

Reacting to the order, Sterlite Copper CEO Pankaj Kumar said the verdict came as an utter shock to employees of Sterlite Copper and thousands of small businesses, entrepreneurs, and community members dependent on the firm’s operations. 

“We firmly believe in the safe and environmentally sound nature of our operations and are discouraged by the wilful reliance on anecdotal evidence and half-truths by certain parties to spread falsehoods against our operations. It is also disheartening that at a time when our nation is forced to depend on hostile neighbours for copper imports, certain forces are conspiring to stifle our nation’s ability to be an independent copper manufacturer. At no point in our operations were any concerns of pollution raised by appropriate authorities. We will, therefore, pursue all available legal remedies in the pursuit of justice in the coming days,” he said. 

Smelting operations at Tuticorin have been halted since April 2018, after the TNPCB rejected the CTO and issued a direction for closure and disconnection of power supply to the plant. 

In May 2018, the state government issued orders to permanently seal the copper smelter plant. 

The government order was issued after 13 anti-Sterlite protesters were shot in a police firing on May 22, 2018. 

The factory had been facing protests from locals for several years over all­eged emissions. Protests took a turn for the worse after the company announced it would double the plant’s capacity to 800,000 tonnes at an estimated investment of Rs 2,400 crore. 

In response to Vedanta’s appeal to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against the afore mentioned orders, the NGT in December 2018 had set aside the TN government’s order, and had directed the TNPCB to renew the CTO, subject to compliance with certain directions as specified in the order.

However, in February 2019, the Supreme Court set aside the NGT’s order on grounds of maintainability. The apex court gave Vedanta the liberty to approach the Madras HC with a writ petition challenging the impugned orders and seeking interim relief, considering that the plant had been shut since March 2018.