Vedanta on Wednesday filed an appeal before the Supreme Court challenging the August 18 order of the Madras High court, which had rejected Vedanta’s plea seeking permission to reopen Sterlite Copper Plant at Thoothukudi.
The Madras High Court had refused to allow the reopening of Vedanta’s south Indian copper smelter, more than two years after it was closed because of pollution concerns that triggered violent protests.
The Tamil Nadu state government ordered the smelter to be closed a week after 13 people died when anti-pollution demonstrations turned violent and police fired at unarmed protesters.
The Madras High Court on August 18 dismissed a plea by the company seeking the smelter’s reopening.
“The doctrine of sustainable development, the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle needs to be applied,” the court said.
“If applied, facts speak for themselves, the petitioner needs to be closed and permanently sealed.”
Tens of thousands of locals stormed the streets of Thoothukudi in south India on May 22, 2018, accusing Vedanta of polluting the environment.
Police said they opened fire as they were overwhelmed. The subsequent violence claimed 13 lives over two days and injured more than a hundred people. No policeman has been charged so far.
Vedanta has denied accusations of pollution, and called the decision to shut its plant a political response to the outrage over the police firing.
However, the Madras High Court said in its 815-page judgement the shutdown “cannot be treated as knee-jerk reaction”.
