NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Vedanta to reopen its copper smelter in Tamil Nadu by refusing to stay an order from the country's environmental court, the company's lawyer said.

The state government appealed against the Indian environment court's order in December to set aside Tamil Nadu's order to close the copper smelter permanently.

The smelter was ordered shut by Tamil Nadu over alleged pollution that led to violent protests in May, culminating in police opening fire on demonstrators and killing 13.

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

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