Hearing resumes in Sterlite copper plant case after three months

Arguments resumed before a division bench comprising Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice V Bhavani Subbaroyan, with Supreme Court senior counsel Ariyama Sundaram appearing for Vedanta recapping the proceedings that had transpired during the hearing which had proceeded for 28 days after it first commenced on June 27, 2019.

His submissions on Monday revolved around the aspect that the impugned order directing the closure of the plant cannot be enlarged and had to be looked as to whether the order can stand on its own or is good enough to close the factory. He also sought the court to eschew arguments based on Article 21 (not deprive a person of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law), by going into generalissues, which is not part of the closure order.

His submissions, which progressed both in the morning and afternoon session also dwelt in length about countering the earlier claims made by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) that Sterlite had dumped around 3.25 lakh tonnes of copper slag on 1.8 acres of land inside the Sterlite plant in Thoothukudi.

He also produced samples of the slag to emphasise his claim that what TNPCB produced during the previous hearing was not slag at the first place.

It may be noted that the hearing in the case had suffered a hiccup owing to the change in the composition of the bench brought about by the then Chief JusticeVK Tahilramani before her resignation.

Based on this, a representation was made to the then acting Chief Justice Vineet Kothari stating that the change in composition of the bench had come forth based on a mis-understanding that only preliminary arguments have been addressed and that the writ petitions have not been heard on merits.

It was also submitted that this would entail arguing of the writ petitions afresh thwarting all the arguments which transpired for the past two months and sought to re-consider their joint request of posting the case before the same bench.

Following this, the hearing has commenced and is expected to go on until December 20.