In a major relief to Sterlite Industries, the Supreme Court on Tuesday stuck to its earlier stay order against the immediate closure of the company?s copper smelting plant at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu. The closure was directed by the Madras High Court.
The HC had in September last year asked the London-listed Vedanta group company to shut down its plant and pay compensation to its workers for not complying with environmental norms.
A bench headed by Justice R V Raveendran, while allowing the company to continue its operations, asked the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to issue a notice to the Anil Agarwal firm to comply with pollution control measures to check unabated pollution within two weeks. It also fixed the next date of hearing in January.
TNPCB has earlier said that Sterlite had met the necessary requirements at its Tuticorin plant and ?the analysis showed all the parameters are within permissible limits? but it had not complied with the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute?s (NEERI) report that pointed out various deficiencies, particularly its failure to comply with the norms on solid waste disposal.
Sterlite, however, had argued that there had not been a single violation of pollution or environmental laws after 1996. Permission for the copper plant was given according to the previous norms when it was not in the eco-sensitive zone as per the Environment Impact Assessment guidelines.
It said that the smelter plant had been operating for more than 12 years and had all the requisite approvals from the state Pollution Control Board and other regulatory authorities, including the Ministry of Environment and Forests.