Action only After Studying Court Judgment: Jaiprakash Associates

New Delhi: Infrastructure major Jaiprakash Associates said that it is studying the Himachal Pradesh High Court judgement penalising the company for setting up a thermal power plant at its cement plant at Bagheri and will then decide on remedial measures. "The judgement of Hon'ble High Court was pronounced yesterday (Friday) and it being voluminous, we are studying the implications thereof, both legal as well as factual, and depending upon the legal advice that we receive, we shall decide our future course of action in accordance with the well established constitutional provisions," the company said in a statement. "We feel that perhaps our contentions and submissions factual as well as legal could not be put across in a proper perspective for which we shall adopt appropriate remedial measures." The company said that it had already decided not to go ahead with the captive power plant even before the judgment was pronounced. "Jaiprakash Associates had already decided (much before the high court order) not to go ahead with the captive thermal power plant at its cement plant at Bagheri." The company added that the cement power has provide economic benefits to the region by employing thousands of locals and that even the high court had taken a note of this. A green bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court Friday fined the firm 100 crore for violating environment laws. The court cancelled the permission for a 62 MW captive thermal plant and directed that it be dismantled within three months.