NGT to hear Vedanta's plea over Tuticorin plant tomorrow

The National Green Tribunal is scheduled to hear tomorrow a plea by mining major Vedanta, which has challenged the Tamil Nadu government's order to permanently shut down its Sterlite copper plant in Tuticorin.

The matter will come up before a bench headed by NGT chairperson A K Goel.

On July 5, the tribunal had issued notices to the state government and the pollution board seeking their responses after Tamil Nadu raised preliminary objection with regard to the maintainability of Vedanta's plea.

The Tamil Nadu government had on May 28 ordered the state pollution control board to seal and "permanently" close the mining group's copper plant following violent protests over pollution concerns.

Earlier in April, the Tamil Nadu pollution control board had rejected Sterlite's plea to renew the Consent To Operate certification, saying the company had not complied with the stipulated conditions. Following this, the government had issued a permanent closure notice to the plant.

Vedanta's plea in the NGT seeks permission to operate the unit and a direction to declare as unlawful and illegal the exercise of powers by the Tamil Nadu government in passing the closure order under section 18(1)(b) of the Water Act.

Sterlite's factory had made headlines in March, 2013 when a gas leak led to the death of one person and several others were injured, after which then chief minister