REITERATING once again the environmental concerns of the people of Thoothukudi district, the Madras High Court refused on August 18 the request for reopening the Vedanta-owned Sterlite Copper smelting plant there. It may be recalled that 13 people were killed in police firing on May 22, 2018 during a peaceful protest raising pollution concerns in connection with the plant. A bench of Justices T S Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan delivered the judgement which was hailed by all political parties, including the ruling AIADMK, with the sole exception of BJP.

In February 2019, the Supreme Court set aside the National Green Tribunal (NGT) decision to reopen the plant. Earlier, the NGT had directed the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to pass fresh orders of renewal of consent and issue an authorisation to Vedanta Limited to handle hazardous substances. Subsequently, challenging orders passed by the state government and TNPCB refusing consent to operate, disconnecting the power supply and closing and sealing the premises, Vedanta filed 10 writ petitions in the high court.

Dismissing all the writ petitions filed by Vedanta, the HC said in its judgement that the petitioner has no fundamental right to establish a polluting industry. It has also pointed out that the copper plant was situated within a radius of 25 km from the ecologically sensitive Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park, and said that it has escaped relocation only because of a delay in notifying the National Park since 2003. The bench recalled that the plant had long been accused of polluting the environment. It has also pointed out that the chain of events will reveal that the petitioner has been a chronic defaulter taking advantage of the slackness of the regulator. It has also refused the request of Vedanta to pass an order of status quoto for a couple of weeks until the company goes on appeal.

In its 815-page judgment, the HC bench has found that the Sterlite Copper plant in Thoothukudi suffers from Zonal disqualification as there is no material to indicate that there was a special industrial zone in the area, going by the Master Plan of Thoothukudi. Hence, there is a serious error in the location of Vedanta’s industry in the land in question. The bench has also found sufficient material to show that there was pollution on account of the plant’s activities. It has said that “we are inclined to accept the stand taken by the TNPCB to hold that the increase in the levels of TDS, chloride, sulphate and total hardness are all attributable to the petitioner’s operation and therefore the order of closure cannot be stated to be on account of speculation.”

The bench has also mentioned in its judgment that Vedanta had failed to disclose the actual extent of land held by them while applying for environmental clearance for a proposed expansion of activities. It has also held that for a substantial period of time from 1995 till 2018, Vedanta was operating without a valid consent to operate. They were operating either on account of orders passed by Courts/Tribunal or by stating that application for renewal of consent was pending. Hence, “cumulatively considering all the reports of the expert agency from the year 1998 and arriving at a conclusion that the petitioner deserves to be permanently closed”, the bench added.

It has also pointed out that “as per a 2019 report by the central government’s National Clean Air Programme, Thoothukudi is the only district which finds a place in the list of most polluted cities in Tamil Nadu. These statistics clearly show the averment by the petitioner that Thoothukudi is safer than Chennai is to be rejected as being unsubstantiated.”

Talking to reporters after the HC judgment, CPI(M) Tamil Nadu State Committee Secretary K Balakrishnan said it was a success for the movement of the local people for more than 15 years against Sterlite demanding its closure. He emphatically stated that as an intervener in this case, if Vedanta appeals before the Supreme Court, we will also contest the case in that forum. He has also requested the Tamil Nadu government to take appropriate action to put forward valid and powerful arguments before the Apex Court and ensure the ultimate removal of this polluting plant from the soil of Thoothukudi and called upon all those involved in this to make a concerted and united effort to achieve this goal.