Top court upholds penalty of $26m

China's top court rejected on Thursday an application for a new hearing of an environmental public interest case, upholding the original ruling.

The applicant, the Jinhui company in Taizhou, Jiangsu province, appealed the initial ruling that ordered the company and five others to pay more than 160 million yuan ($26 million) in compensation for discharging waste acids into two rivers.

It was the biggest environmental penalty imposed in China arising from a public interest case concerning polluters. It was also the first time that the Supreme People's Court had heard such litigation.