MADURAI: Hearing a public interest litigation seeking to cancel environmental clearance (EC) granted to Sterlite in 2007 for its copper manufacturing unit in Thoothukudi, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court directed the customs department to file an affidavit containing documents relating to the amount and composition of ore imported by the plant during each shipment.
The direction came in response to the contentions of the litigant that the government has failed to ensure that the quantum of contaminants present in the ore imported by the company, details of which may be available with the customs department in their bill of lading, is equal to the amount recovered by the unit after the ore gets treated.
“Any imbalance in concentration of contaminants during shipment and after treatment, clearly indicates that the remaining contaminants are being discharged into the environment, something which both the Central government and TN Pollution Control Board failed to verify,” stated the counsel, who appeared for the litigant.
He sought for a direction to the customs department to submit the bill of lading and other documents which may contain details of the amount of contaminants imported by the company so that the same could be compared with the records maintained by Sterlite on the effluents generated by the plant. A division bench of Justices directed the customs department to submit the documents in the form of affidavit at the next hearing on September 3.