CHENNAI: Terming Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper a ‘chronic’ defaulter, Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday submitted in Madras high court that ‘unrestrained pollution appears to be the standard modus operandi of the company, as it has been found guilty of various violations globally’.“Their global malpractices, environmental and human rights concerns make it a party unfit for being granted discretionary relief at an interim stage by the court,” Shambhu Kallolikar, principal secretary to department of environment and forest to the state, said through a counter affidavit, opposing Sterlite’s plea seeking access to the company’s premises in Tuticorin for care and maintenance of the plant.However, the court refused any interim relief to Sterlite.When the pleas moved by Sterlite came up for hearing before a division bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and M Nirmalkumar, senior counsel for the company Aryama Sundaram submitted that only Sterlite is being continuously targeted and propagated in negative light and that it is part of a vicious design.“Thousands of people have been unemployed since the closure of the plant and its reopening is not only an industrial issue today but is of the common cause for the welfare and dignified livelihood of the people of Tamil Nadu,” Sundaram said.Claiming that more than ?1,000crore worth machinery installed in the plant needs care and maintenance, Sundaram said on average, the company spends around ?60crore annually on maintenance. The senior counsel then pressed for interim relief granting access to the plant for the limited purpose of maintenance and care.Recording the submissions, the bench, however, refused any interim relief to Sterlite and posted the pleas to April 23 for further hearing.The state government earlier submitted that the past conduct of the unit does not inspire any confidence, or in fact permit access to the unit, as the petitioner, on a prior occasion, was allowed to retain possession and maintain the unit post refusal of consent to operate, on April 9, 2018.“However, the petitioner abused the long rope given by authorities and it was found on inspection that it was carrying out activities to resume production operation. Thus, no access can be granted to the petitioner, who has a demonstrable history of acting in contravention of the law. Equally, no discretionary relief can be granted by this court in light of the instant facts,” said senior counsel C S Vaidyanathan appearing for TNPCB.The petitioner is blatantly trying to achieve indirectly what it cannot achieve directly. By seeking to revive and maintain the plant in an ‘as-new’ state, the petitioner is attempting to keep the plant ready to resume operations, Vaidyanathan added.

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