The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on Centre’s curative plea for enhanced compensation to the victims of 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy from US-based firm Union Carbide Corporation, now owned by Dow Chemicals.
A five-judge constitution bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul , Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Abhay S. Oka, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice J.K. Maheshwari heard the parties in the case for three days and reserved the judgement.
The Centre in its curative petition has sought direction to Union Carbide and other firms for over Rs 7,400 crore additional amount over and above the earlier settlement amount of USD 470 million (RS 715 crore at the time of settlement in 1989) for paying compensation to the gas tragedy victims.
The government sought a re-examination of the top court’s February 14, 1989 judgment which had fixed compensation at USD 470 million, contending that the 1989 settlement was seriously impaired.
The contention of the Central government was that the compensation, determined in 1989, was arrived at on the basis of assumptions of truth unrelated to realities.
The Bhopal gas tragedy, termed as the world’s worst industrial disaster, had claimed the lives of several thousand people after the leak of the toxic Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas from the Union Carbide‘s pesticide plant on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984.
The tragedy resulted in the death of 5,295 people, injuries to almost 5,68,292 persons besides loss of livestock and loss of property of almost 5,478 persons.
The top court had already dismissed a curative petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2010 for enhancement of punishment to the accused in the tragedy.
The investigating agency had approached the top court after facing public outcry over a Bhopal court order that sentenced Union Carbide executives to two years’ imprisonment. Those convicted included former Union Carbide India’s Chairman Keshub Mahindra.
Dismissing the CBI’s curative plea in 2011, the top court had held that “no satisfactory explanation has been given to file such curative petitions after about 14 years from the 1996 judgment”.