CHENNAI: Vedanta Ltd has filed a fresh petition before the Madras High Court seeking a directive to the Tamil Nadu government to consider its requests for permission to set up a green copper manufacturing plant in Thoothukudi.

The Tamil Nadu government had ordered the closure of the Sterlite plant at Thoothukudi in 2018, citing air, water and land pollution. A protest against Sterlite in 2018 had ended in a police shooting that killed 13 people.

A petition filed by Vedanta, which manages the Sterlite unit, challenging this order was dismissed by the Madras High Court in 2020, and the Supreme Court subsequently upheld the high court's decision.

Vedanta has now filed a new petition before the Madras High Court, seeking permission to establish a green copper manufacturing unit.

In the petition, the company stated that it had sent six representations between June and November to the secretaries of the State Industries Department and the Environment Department, seeking permission to set up the green copper plant, but none of them had been considered.

The petitioner has sought a directive to the Tamil Nadu government to consider these representations. It has also sought a directive to constitute a committee comprising representatives and experts from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the Central Pollution Control Board and other departments to study the feasibility of establishing the plant and submit a report.

When the matter came up for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and G Arul Murugan, the State submitted that the petitioner had only sent representations to the departmental secretaries and had not made a proper application in the prescribed manner to the authorities concerned.

It was also pointed out by both the petitioner's counsel and the state counsel that a separate case seeking the removal of hazardous waste from the closed Sterlite plant premises is still pending.

Taking note of this, the bench directed that the present petition be listed along with the pending case and adjourned the hearing by four weeks.