Supreme Court allows Vedanta to produce O2 at TN plant

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Ltd to produce medical oxygen at its shuttered copper smelter in Tamil Nadu, as the surge in Covid-19 infections overwhelms hospitals and leads to shortage of the life-saving gas.

The oxygen produced at Vedanta’s Sterlite unit in Tuticorin will go to the central pool and will be allocated to the states as per their requirement, a three-judge bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud said. The order is restricted to Sterlite reopening an oxygen plant and not the copper smelter, the bench said.