more-in The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday granted permission to Vedanta Ltd to make representations to the independent committee formed by the green panel. The directions came while the green panel was hearing a plea moved by Vedanta seeking access to the Sterlite Copper plant that was shut after a closure order from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. After noting submissions put forth by the counsel appearing for Vedanta, the bench said, “We grant you permission to make representation to the Committee.” The bench was referring to an “independent body” that it had constituted earlier. The committee, to be headed by a former High Court judge and comprising representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and the Central Pollution Control Board, is tasked with providing the tribunal with ‘grassroot analysis’. In its August 20 order, the bench had said that an independent body was necessary to ascertain whether a “credible mechanism can be involved whereby rival contentions can be balanced and a view taken.” However, the Tamil Nadu government contended that the State government should also be allowed to make representations to the committee. Later in the evening, the Southern bench of the NGT in Chennai issued a notice that said the committee would hold a sitting on September 24. Meanwhile, the member-secretary of TNPCB wrote to the Regional Director, Central Pollution Control Board in Bengaluru, requesting the committee to postpone the visit as a review petition had been filed by the Tamil Nadu government against the SC order.

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