New Delhi: The Supreme Court is likely to conduct a hearing on November 29 on the Vedanta Group’s plea regarding the closure of its Sterlite copper unit in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin. Sameer Parekh, advocate-on-record for Sterlite Copper, said the plea was mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud for fixing the matters for final hearing. “We submitted that the case has been pending for a long time and needs an urgent solution since such a significant national asset is lying idle and the livelihood of thousands of people is at stake. The Hon’ble Court directed the matter to be listed for two non-miscellaneous days for a final hearing on top of the board”, said Parekh.
On October 9, the Supreme Court had said it had directed its registrar to allocate two dedicated dates to conduct a hearing on the Vedanta Group’s plea regarding the closure of its Sterlite copper unit in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin. In May this year, the apex court had asked the Tamil Nadu government to take appropriate decisions in connection with its April 10 direction by which it had allowed the Vedanta Group to carry out the upkeep of its Sterlite copper unit in Tuticorin under the supervision of a local-level Monitoring Committee.
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The apex court had noted that the district collector had not recommended activities like undertaking a civil and structural safety integrity assessment study on the plant premises, removal and transportation of spares and equipment and evacuation of in-process reverts and other raw materials lying idle.
The apex court had then allowed the evacuation of the remaining gypsum at the plant. “As regards the actions which were not recommended by the district collector, CS Vaidyanathan, senior counsel appearing on behalf of the State of Tamil Nadu, states that the state government will once again evaluate whether any further or supplementary directions should be issued in that regard,” said the apex court in its April 10 order. In May 2018, at least 13 people were killed and many were injured, during police open firing on a huge crowd of people protesting against environmental pollution allegedly caused by the copper smelting unit.
