The Supreme Court will hear on August 17 the Tamil Nadu government's plea against an NGT order to permit mining major Vedanta to access the company's administrative office inside its Sterlite copper smelting plant at Tuticorin. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra agreed to hear the matter after the state's lawyer mentioned it for an early hearing.

Tamil Nadu had ordered the closure of the Tuticorin plant, around 650 km from Chennai, following protests and the death of 13 persons in police firing on May 22.