The Tamil Nadu government Thursday filed a counter affidavit in the Madras High Court, justifying its order closing of a unit of Vedanta group firm Sterlite Copper in Tuticorin district.
The government submitted that permanent closure was ordered in May to prevent further pollution in the area.
When a batch of pleas challenging the closure came up, a division bench of justices T S Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan fixed the date of hearing on the main petitions on June 27.
Senior counsel for Vedanta submitted that petitions for non-renewal of consent to operate the plant, petitions challenging the closure can be taken up for final hearing and simultaneously miscellaneous pleas can also be heard.
On his part, Advocate General Vijay Narayan informed the bench that the state government had already filed a detailed counter.
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"The order of closure does not deserve interference of the court," the counter said.
"The aim and objective of the decision of closure of the industry is in consonance with the letter and spirit of Article 48A of the Constitution of India, which was specifically invoked by the State."
It would amount to grave judicial overreach if the court were to disturb the order at this stage "where there is empirical evidence to support the conclusion that the closure of the petitioners unit has led to the improvement of the environment", the counter affidavit said.
According to Article 51A (g) of the Constitution, there exists a fundamental duty on each citizen to protect and improve the natural environment.
"This fundamental duty, essential and inalienable to the scheme and aims of our Constitution, casts a duty on not just the petitioner, who is a corporate citizen, but also the respondents as holders of the environment in public trust for the people, to ensure that the environment is not polluted.
There is unimpeachable empirical evidence on record to show that the petitioner has polluted the environment," it said.
The closure of the industry has led to massive improvement of the ground water quality in and around the unit, the affidavit asserted.
The plant was ordered to be shut after 13 people, protesting against the alleged pollution caused due to the plant, died in police firing in May last year.
Vedanta has denied the allegations that its plant caused any pollution.
The Supreme Court had in April declined to entertain a petition filed by the Vedanta group seeking access to its closed smelter plant in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu to carry out maintenance activities.
The firm had also challenged in the apex court the Madras High Court's order which had declined to give an early hearing to their interim application as well as the main petitions, which relate to the Tamil Nadu State Pollution Control Board (TNPCB's) order to shut down the plant.
"We are not here to control the high court," a bench headed by Justice R F Nariman said after which the firm withdrew its plea.
The apex court earlier this year had directed the company to move the Madras High Court against the TNPCB order shutting the plant down.
The firm said the value of the Tuticorin plant was around Rs 3,000 crore and if the high court did not eventually allow it to restart operations, it would need to transport and assemble equipment to another location.
Sterlite, in its plea before the high court, challenged the TNPCB's May 23, 2018 orders refusing renewal of consent to the plant as well as permanent closure, terming them as wholly illegal, unconstitutional and ultra vires.
The apex court had earlier set aside the order of the National Green Tribunal allowing opening of the copper unit but gave the liberty to the company to approach the high court against the closure order.
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