NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday granted Vedanta permission to carry out maintenance work at its closed Sterlite plant in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu. A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala granted the permission pursuant to considering the report of the High Powered Committee which was constituted to carry out a ‘Civil and Structural Safety Integrity Assessment Study’ of the plant. The committee had noticed serious structural defects.
“High Powered Committee for the purpose of carrying out a ‘Civil and Structural Safety Integrity Assessment Study’ of the plant,” the bench said in its order. On March 6, 2023 the Additional Chief Secretary of the State Government had addressed a communication to the District Collector, Thoothukudi district by which the collector was permitted to evacuate the remaining gypsum, carry out SLF Leachate Collection Sump Pump Operations on daily basis, carry out bund rectification of SLF-4 with required man power to avoid any possibility of environmental degradation on account of the breach of the SLF bund, to also undertake the green belt maintenance and for clearing the wild bushes and dried trees. The Secretary had directed for carrying the activities under the supervision of Local Level Monitoring Committee.
However, the district collector did not allow for undertaking the Civil and Structural Safety Integrity Assessment Study in the plant premises, the removal & transportation of spare equipment etc., and evacuating in-process reverts and other raw materials lying idle in the premises of the plant stores.
Senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan submitted that the state government will once again evaluate whether any further or supplementary directions should be issued with regards to the actions not recommend by the District collector.
For Vedanta, Senior Advocate Darius Khambatta submits that there was no reason why the other proposed steps should not be taken. Tamil Nadu Govt in 2018 had directed for closure of Sterlite Copper after violent protests against the plant which had resulted in death of 13 people. The factory was responsible for producing over 400,000 tonnes of copper annually and accounted for 40 percent of India’s copper output.