CHENNAI: The First Bench of the Madras High Court, hearing a batch of petitions relating to the discharge of untreated effluents into the Noyyal river, is contemplating imposing a fine on the dyeing and bleaching unit owners.

The Bench, comprising Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice K. Chandru, pointed out that the court-appointed Monitoring Committee and the Expert Committee had recommended that the units should be asked to pay a penalty at the rate of six paise for every litre of untreated effluents let into the river. It had estimated that about 93.4 million litres of such effluents entered the river everyday.

A.L. Somayaji, senior counsel representing nine common effluent treatment plants, submitted that if the recommendation was implemented, the units under these plants would have to close down as they would be mandated to pay about Rs. 58 lakh per day. The units would put in place the reverse osmosis plants by May-June, 2007.

The Bench said erring units had to close business. Noting that the units had been issued closure orders by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, it pointed out they were working because of stay orders from the court. Unless a penalty was imposed, the owners would not comply with the orders, it felt.

The petitions, including the one filed by the Noyyal River Ayacutdars Protection Committee, revolve around the question of the extent of pollution of water in the Noyyal and the Orathapalayam dam, and its effects. Though originally the court had given the units three months to install reverse osmosis plants, from time to time they got extension of the deadline stating that the works were delayed due to problems in sourcing technology as well as human resources.

The First Bench has now posted the matter to November 20 for further proceedings.

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