India Top Court Rejects Vedanta’s Plea to Restart Copper Smelter
- The 400,000 tons-a-year plant has been shut since 2018
- The smelter was violating environmental norms, court says
Activists protest against against the Vedanta's Sterlite Copper Plant in Tamil Nadu, outside Vedanta office in Bengaluru, in 2018.
Photographer: Arijit Sen/Hindustan Times/Getty Images
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India’s Supreme Court has rejected Vedanta Ltd.’s plea to revive a copper plant that has been shuttered since 2018, raising concerns that imports of the metal will surge to meet growing local demand.
The 400,000 tons-a-year smelter in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu was violating environmental compliance requirements, despite being granted sufficient time in the past to take remedial actions, the top court said Thursday. The permission to restart operations can’t be justified considering the severity of the violations, it said.