India top court rejects Vedanta's plea to reopen Sterlite Copper's smelting unit - lawyer
By Praveen Paramasivam and Arpan Chaturvedi
BENGALURU (Reuters) -India's top court on Thursday rejected miner Vedanta's plea to reopen the Sterlite Copper's smelting unit in southern India, a lawyer familiar with the order told Reuters.
Sterlite Copper was forced to shut the smelter, which produces more than 400,000 tons of copper annually, by Tamil Nadu state in 2019 after police killed 13 demonstrators protesting against the plant.
Vedanta's Sterlite Copper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Vedanta had offered to sell the copper smelter complex in the coastal city of Thoothukudi after the deaths as repeated attempts to re-open the plant failed.
Locals and environmental activists have long demanded a shutdown of the copper smelter, citing air and water pollution.
Vedanta had refuted the claims made about pollution.
"Our stand has been vindicated ... The judge has given a wonderful verdict in favour of people," Fatima Babu, a long-time campaigner against the plant, told Reuters.
"Each person (who took part in the protests) in Thoothukudi has had their share of suffering and humiliation and all other kinds of disturbances," she said.
The verdict is the victory of people for their days of protest, Thoothukudi Member of Parliament Kanimozhi wrote on X, formerly called Twitter.
Vedanta Resources, the parent company of Vedanta, has been trying to strengthen its finances, including through a recent debt restructure. The company is burdened with an outstanding debt of $6.4 billion, including a $4.5 billion payment due by fiscal 2025.
Shares of Vedanta, which rose 3.7% so far this year, closed up about 1.9% on Thursday.
(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi in New Delhi, Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru and Praveen P in Chennai; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Sohini Goswami)
