New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea by Tamil Nadu government seeking review of its September 10 order by which it had directed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to decide on merits and maintainability of the issue raised by TN on Vedanta's petition challenging closure of its Sterlite plant at Tuticorin.
A bench of Justices R F Nariman and Indu Malhotra dismissed the review plea of the state government on November 20. This order was uploaded on the apex court website Monday.
"Having carefully gone through the review petition, the order under challenge and the papers annexed therewith, we are satisfied that there is no error apparent on the face of the record, warranting reconsideration of the order impugned. The review petition is, accordingly, dismissed," the bench said.
"We welcome the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court dismissing the review petition filed by the TN government/TNPCB challenging the maintainability of the appeal filed by us at the National Green Tribunal. We had approached the NGT against the TN government/TNPCB's closure order of our Copper Smelter at Thoothukudi", Sterlite Copper CEO P Ramnath said in a statement.
"We would like to reassure the people of Tamil Nadu that we have always been operating the Smelter within prescribed norms and have submitted all supporting data and evidence to the National Green Tribunal", he added.
On September 10, the apex court had asked the NGT to decide on the merits and maintainability of the issue raised by the Tamil Nadu government on Vedanta's plea challenging the closure of its Sterlite plant at Tuticorin. The top court had said the NGT should consider these issues after a three-member committee, constituted by the green panel to look into environmental compliance and other issues of the plant, submits its report.
(With PTI report)
