The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board is preparing to move the Supreme Court against the order of the National Green Tribunal, New Delhi, allowing Sterlite Industries to resume production at its copper smelter unit in Tuticorin after the state regulatory body shut it down late in March.
“In all likelihood, the TNPCB will file a special leave petition challenging the order passed by the NGT,” official sources said on Monday.
The sources declined to spell out the grounds on which the Board planned to go on appeal.
The Tribunal’s order had exposed the omissions of the TNPCB while passing the closure order against the copper plant. Following complaints from the public of excessive emission of sulphur dioxide (SO2), the TNPCB on March 29 ordered the closure of copper plant in Tuticorin. The order was challenged by Sterlite Industries before the NGT, Southern Bench, Chennai.
Later, the matter was transferred before the NGT’s Bench, New Delhi. An expert committee report found that “largely, the functioning of the plant is in consonance with scientific requirements.”
