HC rejects VAL's review petition

In a major setback to Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL), the Orissa High Court on Thursday rejected its review petition for reconsideration of the decision on not allowing the company to expand the capacity of its Lanjigarh alumina project.

Reacting to the High Court verdict, VAL counsel Prashant Nayak said, “we will challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court.”

The aluminum major had filed a review petition after the High Court in July last year had rejected the writ petition of the company and upheld the Centre's decision to stall expansion of its refinery plant at Lanjigarh.

In December last year, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest had also halted the issuance of the term of reference (ToR) in favour of Vedanta VAL till the disposal of the review petition.

Vedanta proposed to expand the capacity of its 1 million tonne per annum (MTPA) alumina refinery to 6 MTPA and also to enhance the captive power generation to 285 Mw from existing 75 Mw at its facility at Lanjigarh, where the company planned to invest $ 8.4 billion.

The MoEF, following a report from the Saxena Committee that VAL was carrying out the expansion programme without any environment clearance, had stopped the work on October 20, 2010.

Though VAL had applied for MoEF nod for the expansion project in August 2007, it had gone ahead with the work without getting the clearance.

While a substantial expansion work was in progress, the ministry invoking its power under the Environment (Protection) Act-1986, ordered the company to maintain status quo at the plant site and directed the Orissa Government to take legal action against the company for violating the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006.

Challenging the MoEF order, VAL had moved a writ petition in the high court, urging the court to quash the ministry’s order as it would hamper the socio-economic development of the area.