Piramal Pharma Ltd has moved the Supreme Court against a Gujarat Pollution Control Board order directing the immediate closure of its Dahej manufacturing unit over alleged environmental violations.
The company is also contesting a direction allowing the encashment of a ₹15 lakh bank guarantee.
The plea is slated to be heard on 9 February before a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and N.V. Anjaria.
On 5 February, the Gujarat high court refused to grant relief to the Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company.
Piramal Pharma’s Dahej facility, located in the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation industrial area, is one of the company’s 10 manufacturing sites in India and produces key starting materials (KSMs) for complex hospital generics such as the inhaled anaesthetic sevoflurane, forming part of a vertically integrated inhalation anaesthesia chain that is completed at its Digwal plant.
The Dahej facility is a World Health Organization-Good Manufacturing Practices (WHO-GMP) compliant manufacturing plant.
The company, in an exchange filing on 4 February, said the financial and operational impact of the plant closure was “not ascertainable at this point in time".
Piramal’s complex hospital generics business clocked a revenue of ₹1,948 crore in the first nine months of 2025-26, marginally up by 1% year-on-year.
The dispute
The Gujarat Pollution Control Board's action followed an incident involving the alleged illegal dumping of hazardous waste.
The regulator said that on 30 January 2026, a tanker carrying spent hydrochloric acid left Piramal Pharma’s Dahej facility for delivery to an authorized waste treatment unit in Surendranagar district. While the journey normally takes five to six hours, villagers in Gandhinagar district allegedly spotted the same tanker dumping chemical waste into a water canal in the early hours of 31 January.
Based on local complaints, surveillance inputs and route data, the pollution board concluded that the tanker had deviated from its approved route. Holding Piramal Pharma responsible as the generator of the hazardous waste, the regulator initiated emergency action and issued a show-cause notice, followed by the closure order on 3 February.
The board ordered the immediate shutdown of all manufacturing operations at the Dahej plant. It also directed the stoppage of electricity and water supply, except for limited use needed for safe shutdown, and prohibited the use of captive power and diesel generator sets.
The pollution body further asked the company to furnish a ₹15 lakh bank guarantee for one year and warned that failure to comply could lead to penalties, including encashment of the guarantee.
The company challenged the shutdown before the Gujarat high court, denying any illegal dumping. The company relied on GPS tracking data, including information available on the pollution board’s own monitoring system, to argue that the tanker was never near the canal in Gandhinagar.
According to Piramal Pharma, the tanker was stationary at Bagodara, a location on the approved route, because the driver had stopped to rest.
The company also argued that it was not given a proper chance to explain its position and said shutting down the entire plant was excessive, especially when the alleged dumping involved a third-party transporter.
On 5 February, the Gujarat high court dismissed the petition, holding that the pollution board was empowered to order immediate closure in cases involving a risk of serious environmental harm.
The court said it could not examine disputed facts such as tanker movement in the writ petition and advised Piramal Pharma to approach the National Green Tribunal.