New Delhi, March 9: Orissa Mining Corporation, the joint venture partner of Sterlite Industries (a sister concern of Vedanta), has moved the Supreme Court against the Ministry of Environment’s decision to deny forest clearance to OMC to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills.

The MOEF move had hurt Vedanta’s plans to mine the hills, setting back its plans to start its refinery in the area. The company had then asked the state to allot it alternate mining sites, but that has so far not worked out.

The OMC owns the mines in the Niyamgiri hills. Under the Supreme Court judgements of Nov 23, 07, and Aug 8, 2008, Sterlite, the Indian arm of Vedanta was permitted to mine the hills, despite local opposition to the multi-crore mining and refinery project, under stringent environmental safeguards. The forest bench of the top court, which included Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia, specifically denied Vedanta permission to mine and instead asked its Indian arm to it so that the court could ensure that action could be taken to ensure that the company complied with the environmental standards.

The petition, filed through counsel T.S. Sudhir, said that despite the court clearance, the MOEF had virtually reopened the issue by overturning the clearance to it. “The Supreme Court took into account ecological, environmental, wildlife and relief and rehabilitation measures for tribals before giving clearance to the project,” the petition said.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests, the petition said, had followed the unique and unprecedented step of overturning a top court ruling.

The MOEF decision also affects the credibility of the OMC and the investment climate in the state, the petition added. It urged the top court to set aside the MOEF order. An MOEF panel had in Aug 2010 found Vedanta guilty of expanding its refinery without clearances and had shot down its mining plans.

The mining was to be done for the refinery. Vedanta had signed a deal with the Orissa government in 2003 for construction of an aluminium refinery, and proposed to extract 3 million tones of bauxite per annum from the Niyamgiri hilltop for transporation to the refinery at the base of the hill.

The project had been cleared by the SC despite local opposition from the Dongria Kondh tribe which holds the hills sacred.

The MOEF had on Oct 21, 2010, asked Vedanta Aluminium to stop all its construction activities on the six-fold expansion of its refinery.