The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that Vedanta Limited could refurbish its Thoothukudi copper smelting plant, closed six years ago on the grounds of environmental pollution, provided that it follows expert advice on environmental safeguards and also makes an upfront deposit in an escrow account for this purpose.
“We can allow you to refurbish, six years have gone by… We can direct you to put some money upfront, say in an escrow, as a bonafide measure that you will comply with all the environmental safeguards framed by an expert panel of which the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) will be a part. After all, it is the State’s land. They have the remit,” Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, heading a three-judge Bench, addressed senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for Vedanta.
The court said that it had “an obligation to protect the welfare of the local community in Thoothukudi. They are a voiceless people”.
Expert committee
Mr. Divan suggested that the “way forward” would be to appoint an expert committee with representatives from the Environment Ministry, NEERI, the Central Pollution Control Board, the Indian Institute of Technology, Vedanta, along with three independent members as well as officers of the TNPCB. He proposed that the committee, chaired by a retired SC judge, could recommend conditions for reopening the plant, including additional environmental safeguards, within a month.
The TNPCB, however, strongly countered that the plant had been closed due to extensive pollution in the area. Several committees had asked the company to take remedial measures, but they were not complied with. Referring to the court’s remarks that the copper plant was a “national asset” which the country cannot afford to lose, senior advocate C.S. Vaidyanathan said that balancing national interests did not mean reopening the plant at the cost of the lives of the local people.
‘No right to set up polluting plant’
“But it is nobody’s case that copper smelters are barred in India. It is within the industrial policy,” the Chief Justice intervened.
Mr. Vaidyanathan and advocate M.F. Philip, for TNPCB, said that there was “no right to set up a polluting industry, that too, in a heavily populated place”.
“Then why did you give them permission in the first place?” Chief Justice Chandrachud queried.
‘False promises on oxygen production’
The senior lawyer responded that the plant had operated on the basis of the interim orders of the court. He submitted that 9,09,766 MT of gypsum was suppressed to obtain a consent to operate “by any means possible” in 2018. Vedanta had indiscriminately dumped 5.37 lakh MT of slag at 11 sites around the district. Mr. Vaidyanathan said that Vedanta had tried to mislead the top court during the pandemic, claiming that it could produce 1,050 MT of oxygen a day at the plant, in a bid to restart partial operations.
“The promise was never achieved and Vedanta produced a maximum of 45 tonnes of oxygen per day including liquid and gaseous oxygen,” Mr. Vaidyanathan contended.
“There is an absolute and non-delegable duty to the community that no harm results to anyone on account of hazardous and inherently dangerous activity. The onus is on them [Vedanta],” Mr. Vaidyanathan said.
The copper smelting plant was permanently shut down on the orders of the Tamil Nadu government six years ago on the grounds of pollution. The 2018 closure of the plant was preceded by nearly 30 years of local protests, which had even led to an incident of police firing.
