HC to resume hearing Vedanta's plea against Thoothukudi plant closure

After a two month gap, a bench of the Madras High Court is set to resume hearing from December 16 a plea by Vedanta challenging closure of its copper smelter unit Sterlite at Thoothukudi.

The bench, comprising Justices T S Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan, which concluded 28 days of hearing, could not continue as its senior judge Justice Sivagnanam was deputed to the Madurai bench.

In view of the voluminous documents and records involved, attempts to continue the hearing through video conferencing were also dropped.

Since Justice Sivagnanam has been deputed back to the principal bench at Chennai now, counsels representing Vedanta and the state government represented to Chief Justice A P Sahi to reallot the cases to the bench, comprising Justices Sivagnanam and Bhavani.

On December 13, as per the orders of the Chief Justice, the High Court registry notified the bench comprising Justices Sivagnanam and Bhavani which would hear the cases from December 16 to 20.