Sterlite Copper functioned without valid licence for 16 years

Tamil Nadu’s pollution watchdog has come under severe criticism from the Madras High Court for allowing Vedanta-owned Sterlite Copper to operate its massive copper smelter on the outskirts of Thoothukudi without “valid consent to operate” for over 16 years of its 22 years of existence.

In the voluminous 815-page judgement delivered in a bunch of writ petitions filed by Sterlite Copper against Tamil Nadu government’s move of shutting down its plant, the division bench of Justices T S Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan reserved some of the harshest criticism for Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB).

It is a “shocking reality” that for the substantial period of the time from 1995 to 2018 – 16 years and 92 days – Sterlite Copper was operating without valid consent to operate, the court observed, adding that the industry was operating either on account of orders passed by Courts or the Tribunal, or by stating that application for renewal of consent was pending.

Environmentalists who were fighting against Sterlite had time and again accused the Vedanta-owned company of operating without a necessary licence for years together.

Read: Sterlite Copper 'shocked' at Madras HC verdict, to pursue all legal remedies to reopen Thoothukudi plant

The court castigated the TNPCB holding that the pollution watchdog was “under-equipped” to deal with industries of the magnitude of Sterlite Copper that carry out multiple processes and have several by-products which require monitoring at different stages, locations, and times.

“We have also mentioned in our assessment that the data collected from the petitioner are through the monitors established by the TNPCB, which are not analysed. Had such an exercise been done, periodical notices would have been issued to the petitioner not only when an incident occurs or is reported,” the judges said in their order pronounced on Tuesday.

“Thus, it is evidently clear that there was no proper monitoring of the industry presumably on account of the orders of Court/Tribunal, TNPCB did nothing in the matter, though it was well open to the regulator to inspect and ascertain as to whether the petitioner can be permitted to continue to operate the unit,” they added.

Also read: Kin of police firing victims welcome Sterlite Copper verdict; seek justice

The judges said the TNPCB failed to discharge its duties and observed that nothing prevented the regulator from approaching the Court by way of an appropriate application appraising the facts and the need to monitor the petitioner.

They also noted if the TNPCB had taken up an exercise of verifying the quality of the raw material imported by the petitioner, much of the allegations which have cropped up now would not have arisen. The bench also blamed the regulator for the lack of proper monitoring.

Nityanand Jayaram, an environmentalist at the forefront of the anti-Sterlite agitation, said he was happy that the court had reserved “stringent criticism” for the TNPCB, whose system is “extremely broken.” However, he feels harsh observations of the judges are likely to have no impact on the functioning of the pollution watchdog.

“Things would have been starkly different in this country if pollution watchdogs had complied with court orders. I do not think the harsh words are sufficient enough to shame the TNPCB to reform. The system in the TNPCB is extremely broken,” he told DH.