The Madras High Court (HC) on August 18 dismissed petitions seeking reopening of Vedanta's Sterlite copper plant in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu.
The High Court upheld the Tamil Nadu government's order of May 2018, which directed the closure of Vedanta's facility.
13 people were allegedly shot dead by the police on May 22, 2018 during a protest against the plant. The state government shut down the plant six days later, alleging violation of environment laws.
The judgment was pronounced on August 18 by a Division Bench of Justices TS Sivagnananam and Bhuvani Subbaroyan.
The Madras HC also declined a request by Senior Advocate Aryama Sundaram for Vedanta to maintain status quo for a few weeks, legal news website Bar & Bench reported.
Vedanta's counsel in a statement said the company is "shocked" by the judgment and will be taking taking legal remedies.
"Since we have always believed that this is a completely knee jerk reaction by the government and closure was only for political reasons. It's a very retrograde step for the country that we are importing billions of dollars of copper from China when in point of fact we would have been self sufficient as a country. In fact, we are especially aggrieved since there was never any notice ever given to us for any kind of pollution prior to this closure order and we would definitely be taking our remedies as available in law," Vedanta's counsel said.
In February 2019, the Supreme Court had set aside the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order that permitted reopening of the plant.
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