The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Tamil Nadu government to place its “considered decision” to Vedanta Ltd.’s willingness to undertake activities at its own cost to address “serious deficiencies” reported by the State’s High-Powered Committee concerning the closed Sterlite copper unit at Thoothukudi.
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The Tamil Nadu government had constituted a High-Powered Committee for carrying out a “civil and structural safety integrity assessment study” of the plant. The committee, in its report in July last year, had noticed “serious structural defects”.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud listed the case on May 4.
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Meanwhile, the court took note of a communication addressed by the Additional Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu to the Thoothukudi District Collector on March 6.
In this note, the Additional Chief Secretary had permitted the district official to primarily proceed with the evacuation of remaining gypsum from the plant unit using the required manpower along with other activities, including maintenance of the green belt and clearing of the wild bushes and dried trees under the supervision of Local Level Monitoring Committee. The court allowed the steps to be taken.
The court noted that certain other activities had not been allowed. These included the civil and structural safety integrity assessment study in the plant premises, removal and transportation of spares/equipment, and evacuation of in-process reverts and other raw material lying idle on the premises of the plant/stores.
“As regards the actions which were not recommended by the District Collector, Mr. C.S. Vaidyanathan, senior counsel appearing on behalf of the Tamil Nadu states that the State government will once again evaluate whether any further or supplementary directions should be issued in that regard,” the court recorded in its order.