India’s Supreme Court limits aluminium industry’s petcoke imports to 0.5 million tonnes

The Supreme Court has imposed restrictions on the import of petroleum coke or petcoke by domestic aluminium and calciner industries. A bench headed by Justice Madan B. Lokur has restricted import limit at 0.5 million tonnes and 1.4 million tonnes per year.

Earlier, the apex court had eased its ban on use of petcoke in cement and limestone, calcium carbide and gasification industries.

Advocate Aparajita Singh who appeared for the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) requested the apex court to allow petcoke import by the aluminium and calcier industries for use as feedstock.

"The calciner industry should be allowed to import pet coke as its industry uses it for feedstock and not for fuel. For aluminium industry, EPCA recommended that the industry can be allowed to import calcined pet coke as it would require roughly 0.4-0.6 million tonnes annually,"  Singh said while adding that pet coke is a highly polluting fuel.

The Supreme Court also issued a notice to the Benguluru-based Graphite India and asked it to file an affidavit on "why the use of calcined petcoke should not be stopped by it with immediate effect."

Aparajita Singh told the court that "The state pollution board also informed EPCA of its recent visit to the plant and confirmed the presence of black particles in nearby homes. It was agreed that the likely source of pollution was the fugitive dust from the plant. Graphite India assured EPCA that it would take all measures to ensure that pollution is mitigated within the next three months. This matter, however, highlights the need for caution in allowing the industry to use this highly polluting fuel."

The court had allowed Graphite India in September to import petcoke after EPCA's recommendation.