In a major relief to Sterlite, a subsidiary of Anil Agrawal-promoted Vedanta multinational, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Madras high court order for closure of the company in Tamil Nadu for alleged violation of pollution control norms in its Tuticorin copper smelting plant.
A bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran and H.L. Gokhale granted the interim stay on the HC verdict of September 28 after Sterlite counsel C. Sundaram during special mentioning of the petition questioned the validity of the order on various counts in a 14-year-old PIL.
The apex court meanwhile, issued notice to the Centre, the Tamil Nadu government and the state pollution control board, seeking their reply to the appeal filed by Sterlite by October 18 when the case will be taken up for detailed hearing.
Sterlite in its special leave petition alleged that the high court had “failed” to take into account the fact that its various directions issued between 1996 and 1999 issued on the pending PIL had been “complied” with by the company and the HC had been “satisfied” with the steps taken.
The closure order would have a drastic effect on the company and its over 2.3 lakh shareholders. The company “contributes” nearly Rs 1,600 cores in form of various taxes to the exchequer, the petition said.
Besides, the company with a turnover of `13,000 cores has 1,100 employees while 2,500 people were indirectly employed due to its business in the state. On the background of all these factors, “such a judgement has been passed without any urgent or immediate circumstances warranting the same with no allegations.”