Chennai: The Madras High Court upheld the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to shut down Sterlite Copper, a unit of Vedanta Limited in Thoothukudi, a news report said. The court dismissed the company’s plea to resume operations, over two years after it was shut down by the state government for violating environmental norms.
A Bench of Justices TS Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan ordered that the plant cannot be allowed to reopen, and dismissed all petitions by Vedanta, The News Minute reported. The closure order will continue to stand, it said.
In 2018, residents from villages around Sterlite, along with social and environmental activists, had staged sustained protests against the copper plant which has been facing pollution allegations since the 1990s. The plant was ordered shut by the Tamil Nadu government on 24 May 2018, two days after 13 civilians died during protests against the plant.
