The Supreme Court is ready to hear the petition of the Tamil Nadu government on August 17, in which the NGT order has been challenged to allow Vedanta Group to go to the administrative block of its closed Sterlite Copper Plant in Tuticorin. The bench of Chief Justice Deepak Mishra and Justice AM Khanvilkar considered the plea of the State Government and fixed 17th August for the hearing on the petition. The National Green Tribunal (NGT), on August 9, had asked mining major Vedanta to go to its administrative unit within the Sterlite Copper Plant saying that allowing permission to go to the administrative block would not harm the environment.
The NGT had said that the plant would be closed and the company was not allowed to go to its production unit and it had directed the District Magistrate to ensure the compliance of the order. On May 28, the Tamil Nadu government had ordered the State Pollution Control Board to seal the plant and stop it "permanently" on May 28. After violent demonstrations about pollution concerns, the government gave this order.
Sterlite plant was in the headlines in March 2013 when a person was killed by gas leaks and many others were sick. After that, then Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha had ordered to close it. The company had appealed in the NGT which overturned the government order. After this, the state had reached the Supreme Court against it and the matter is still pending.
The Supreme Court had ordered the company to pay compensation of 100 crores to the company to contaminate the environment. After fresh demonstrations and police firing, the plant was closed on March 27. As soon as Sterlite announced the plan to expand the Tuticorin plant, the surrounding villagers started performing and performed for 100 days. These demonstrations took violent form on May 22 when 13 people were killed and hundreds were injured in police firing on demonstrators.
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