Gautam Adani runs the vast business empire which has mining, power and shipping interests.
The country's top environmental court has been given six weeks to decide whether a port being developed by the Adani Group in Kerala should be cancelled.
The Supreme Court, which had stopped the National Green Tribunal or NGT from hearing petitions against the project in January 2015, today lifted that restriction. It had stayed the hearings while it decided which bench of the green court would handle the case.
The Vizhinjam port, near Kerala's capital of Thiruvananthapuram, will provide key access to major international shipping routes, and is being jointly developed by the Adani conglomerate and the Kerala government at a reported cost of Rs 6,600 crore.
It has been challenged by different groups including local fishermen who contend that the construction and development will cause irreversible damage in an environmentally-fragile area. They had asked for the case to be transferred from Chennai to the NGT in Delhi. The Kerala government had opposed that arguing that the matter was under the jurisdiction of the Chennai bench of the NGT and so should be heard there.
"We can understand if a poor person objects to coming to Delhi from Chennai. But here, it is Adani, one of the most powerful entrepreneurs in the country," the Supreme Court said today, ordering the case to be heard in the capital.
The Kerala government has also argued that the green court cannot cancel a project cleared by the union Environment Ministry.
Gautam Adani, who runs the vast business empire which has mining, power and shipping interests, is known for his proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who, in the past, has been seen using the group's aircraft. The relationship is cited often by the opposition including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as a glaring example "crony capitalism", a charge the PM's party denies.
However,
in a column for ndtv.com, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who represents Kerala in parliament, wrote in favour of the Adani project.
"We (Kerala) failed to secure a viable bid to build and operate the port in the last 25 years. The current winning bid (from Adani) , in the fourth bid process over the last decade or so, is the last chance for Vizhinjam," Mr Tharoor wrote, adding, "Since Vizhinjam would be built from scratch, it has the ability to deploy "best in class" equipment without being burdened by legacy facilities. It can be highly mechanized and have world-class efficiency (given the right operator). Vizhinjam could handle the largest ships in the world as efficiently as Singapore, Hong Kong or Rotterdam for decades to come."
Adani's mining ventures in Chhattisgarh and the Hazira port developed at Surat in Gujarat have also been scrutinized for alleged environmental malpractices.