 "Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper plant")
The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday proposed constituting a panel to explore the possibility of reopening Vedanta’s copper smelting plant in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi.
The Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud-led Bench indicated that the panel can comprise experts in the field of environment and a representative from an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). According to reports, the court observed that national interest cannot be overlooked and the nation should not lose the asset. However, the court is yet to come out with a verdict.
This comes months after Sterlite Copper came out with a notification inviting expression of interest to supply raw materials like copper concentrate, imported thermal coal, rock phosphate, and petroleum products among others, as part of its preparatory measures to restart production. The plant closed over five years ago following an order issued by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.
The plant stopped production in May 2018, after protests broke out against the firm’s plan to double its annual capacity to 800,000 tonnes. Subsequently, police firing caused the death of 13 people and injured 102. On June 2 last year, the company finally got access to the plant for upkeep works, following a court ruling in April allowing it to carry out maintenance.
