The Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani, on Tuesday directed its registry to list a case filed by Vedanta Limited to reopen the Sterlite copper plant in Thoothukudi before a Division Bench of Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and V. Bhavani Subbaroyan, who recently quashed the land acquisition notifications for the proposed ₹10,000-crore Chennai-Salem greenfield expressway project.
The administrative order was issued hours after Justice K.K. Sasidharan, sitting along with Justice P.T. Asha in a Division Bench, recused himself from hearing the case, citing the orders he had passed in a related case during his tenure at the Madurai Bench of the High Court last year. Noting that the aforementioned orders were taken all the way to the Supreme Court and that the case had led to a “media trial”, the judge said he was not inclined to hear the present petition.
Though senior counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan, representing the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), accepted the judge’s decision by bowing his head, senior counsel AR.L. Sundaresan, appearing for Vedanta, urged the judge to hear the present matter as well.
‘Better to start over’
However, the judge refused to budge from his stand. “It is better to start the matter with a clean slate before some other Bench,” he said.
When Vedanta underscored the urgency of the issue, noting that the plant had been under lock and key since May 28 last year, the judge said he had already passed a judicial order directing the registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice.
Immediately, senior counsel P.S. Raman, also representing the petitioner company, made a mention before the Chief Justice, who assured him that she would look into the issue and take an appropriate decision.
Standing orders
As per the standing orders already issued by the Chief Justice, any case from which Justice Sasidharan recuses himself should automatically get listed before a Division Bench led by Justice R. Subbiah.
However, since the latter had also recused himself from the same case in February at the admission stage itself, the Chief Justice chose to direct the registry to list it before the Division Bench led by Justice Sivagnanam.
Justice Subbiah had recused himself from hearing the case as MDMK general secretary Vaiko, one of the intervenors in the case, was his family friend.
Time constraint
After his recusal, the case got listed before a Bench led by Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, which handled it for about two months. During this period, Vedanta made several attempts to obtain an interim order permitting it to enter the plant and maintain the machinery.
But the Bench refrained from passing any such order, citing the lack of time to hear lengthy arguments. Justice Sathyanarayanan told the lawyers that his Bench was already bogged down with many important cases, including the criminal appeals filed against the death sentences imposed on six persons for the murder of Shankar in Udumalpet in 2016.
Subsequently, the firm approached the Supreme Court as well, seeking permission to access the plant, but could not succeed in obtaining a favourable order.
Meanwhile, several intervening petitions were filed in the High Court, both in favour of and against reopening the plant.
Prominent among those who opposed the reopening of the plant was Mr. Vaiko, who was present in court on Tuesday when Justice Sasidharan recused himself from the case.