Madras HC stays restored NOC to explosives unit

The Madras High Court today stayed the restoration of no-objection-certificate to an explosives processing unit in Tiruchirapalli district, where a fire and subsequent blasts had claimed 19 lives on December 1, 2016.

A Madurai bench of justices C T Selvam and Basheer Ahamed stayed the NOC to Vetrivel Explosives on a plea by a resident of Murgapatti village, where the unit is located.

The village resident,  K Periyasamy had challenged the NOC's restoration of the plant, contending that it had been done illegally under an improper exercise of jurisdiction by the district revenue officer (DRO) on March 23, 2018.

On Periyasamy's petition, the court also issued notices to the state's chief controller of explosives, the Tiruchirapalli district collector and the DRO, directing them to file their replies to the plea within four weeks

In his petition, Periyasamy contended that the DRO, instead of pursuing the criminal case against the factory owner, had chosen to restore the NOC.

The DRO was not a competent scientific person or body to restore the NOC for the factory, which also caused water contamination due to which cattle in the area died, he alleged.

The factory did not have a proper effluent plant either and dumped waste in bore wells, the petitioner said.

He said  the DRO had also violated a high court order, which had directed him to discuss public safety, besides other aspects.

All the material facts had been suppressed while restoring the NOC, he said.

All 510 residents of the village had also objected to the restoration of NOC to the village, he said, and sought to quash the NOC.