New Delhi, Oct. 18: While continuing its stay on the Madras high court order for closing of Sterlite, a subsidiary of MNC Vedanta in Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court on Monday admitted the company’s petition for detailed hearing and sought all pollution reports relating to its copper smelting plant in Tuticorin.
A bench of Justices Mr R.V. Raveendran and Mr H.L. Gokhale also directed the company to file an affidavit detailing the steps taken by it for disposal of the “contaminated” solid waste generated in its plant at a safe “unreachable” place.
The court gave time till the second week of December for the parties to complete the filing of the affidavits and counter affidavits to enable it to hear the case on merits.
Adjourning the hearing with continuation of the stay on the HC order, came as a major relief to the company, which claimed in its special leave petition that the closure would affect its 1,100 employees directly and 2,500 other people getting indirect employment due to its business activities in Tamil Nadu.
The Monday order of the apex court came after Sterlite’s petition came up for routine hearing. Earlier on October 1, the apex court had granted an interim stay on the HC order when the company’s counsel Mr C. Sunadram made a special mention of the SLP.
During a short hearing the bench asked Mr Sundaram why the company had refr-ained from producing those reports before the HC, which were “against” it.