Madras High Court’s Justice KK Sasidharan Recuses From Vedanta's Plea To Reopen Thoothukudi Sterlite Copper Plant
[ By Bobby Anthony ]Justice Sasidharan recused himself from hearing a plea filed by Vedanta to reopen its Sterlite copper smelting plant at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, stating that he had heard the matter earlier in the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.Justice Sasidharan happens to be one of the two judges of a division bench of the Madras High Court hearing the plea.It may be recalled...
Justice Sasidharan recused himself from hearing a plea filed by Vedanta to reopen its Sterlite copper smelting plant at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, stating that he had heard the matter earlier in the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.
Justice Sasidharan happens to be one of the two judges of a division bench of the Madras High Court hearing the plea.
It may be recalled that in 2018, Justice Sasidharan had passed an interim order restraining Vedanta from reopening its Sterlite plant.
Vedanta’s petition seeks to reopen its Sterlite copper smelting plant at Thoothukudi, after a Tamil Nadu government order closed it down.
Vedanta’s Sterlite copper plant in Thoothukudi was shut down by the Tamil Nadu State Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) in 2018, citing violations of environmental laws. The closure order was passed immediately after citizens protested expansion of the plant.
Later, the protest had taken a violent turn after which the police opened fire on protesters, leading to several civilian casualties.
Subsequently, Vedanta had challenged the closure order before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which ruled in the company’s favor. This order was challenged by the TNPCB before the Supreme Court in January 2019, when the Court stated that the NGT order to reopen the plant will continue to be operational during the pendency of the appeal.
In February 2019, the Supreme Court set aside the NGT order and allowed reopening of the Sterlite plant on the ground that the NGT did not have any jurisdiction to entertain the case.
However, the Supreme Court allowed Vedanta to move the High Court against orders passed against it and accordingly, Vedanta moved a plea before the Madras High Court challenging the orders passed by the TNPCB, which had led to the closure of its Thoothukudi Sterlite plant.
The matter has now been posted before a bench comprising of Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Bhavani Subbaroyan.