March 15 (expressbuzz) -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a batch of appeals and petitions challenging the clearances granted by Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, and the Tamil Nadu Public Works Department to Chemplast for its PVC plant / Marine Terminal Facility including the pipeline crossing Uppanar river, for drawing the raw material vinyl chloride monomer from the jetty located at Tiyagavalli village to its plant at Semmankuppam village in Cuddalore district.
A three Judge Bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, Justice R M Lodha and Justice BS Chauhan dismissed a special leave petition filed by M Nizamudeen of Cuddalore against an October 31, 2008 Madras High Court judgment, rejecting his petition challenging the clearance granted by the Public Works Department dated February 27, 2008, to Chemplast.
By its order, a writ petition filed by A Bhuvaenthiran of Cuddalore directly in the Supreme Court challenging the MoEF approval dated 19.12.2005 and three more writ petitions transferred to Supreme Court from Madras High Court, were also dismissed.
The Supreme Court observed that ⌠the PVC project of Chemplast had been established by investing a huge amount of about Rs 600 crore after obtaining necessary approvals and therefore it shall not be in the interest of justice nor in the public interest now to interfere with the project. In its judgment rejecting all petitions challenging the environmental clearance to the project, the Bench said, ⌠We do not find any infirmity in the permission granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on December 19, 2005, and having held so, there is no illegality in the permission granted by PWD in February 2008 either.