VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday ruled that status quo be maintained at the LG Polymers plant in Visakhapatnam and issued notices to the company and the State government to file a counter-affidavit. A division bench, comprising Chief Justice GK Maheswari and Justice K Lalitha, issued the interm orders after taking suo motu cognizance of the gas leak at LG Polymers plant in Vizag in which 12 people were killed and several hundreds hospitalised.
Senior advocate YV Raviprasad, amicus curiae, informed the bench that though the police had filed an FIR, they had not yet arrested anyone.
Interestingly, he advised the bench to direct the company not to ship styrene from the Vizag plant and even expressed the fear that the company’s directors may flee the country.
Appearing on behalf of LG Polymers, Supreme Court senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi asserted that the company was ready to face any probe.
No one flee the country and the police have already seized passports of the company’s directors, he informed.
Advocate General S Sriram told the court that the government had appointed a committee to look into the gas leak issue and its report would be submitted to the court as and when it was ready.