Bhopal gas tragedy: SC dismisses Centre’s plea for additional compensation for victims

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Mar 14, 2023: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the Centre’s curative petition seeking additional compensation from Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.

 

In its curative plea, the Centre wanted another Rs 7,844 crore over and above the $470 million already paid in a settlement in 1989 by Union Carbide (now owned by Dow Chemicals), the American firm whose plant in Bhopal spewed the highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas that claimed over 3,000 lives and maimed thousands more.

The five-judge bench led by Justice SK Kaul noted that settlement can be set aside only on the ground of fraud, but no ground of fraud has been pleaded by the government.

“We are unsatisfied with the Union of India for not furnishing any rationale for raking up this issue after two decades,” the top court said, adding that the Centre’s plea for “top-up compensation” has no basis in legal principle.

Rapping the Centre for "gross negligence" over deficiency in the compensation for victims of the deadly gas leak, the bench said the sum of Rs 50 crore lying with the Reserve Bank of India shall be utilised by the Union government to satisfy pending claims.

During an earlier hearing in the matter, the successor firms of UCC told the Supreme Court that the depreciation of the rupee since 1989, when the settlement was arrived at between the company and the Centre, cannot be a ground to now seek a top-up of compensation for the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy.

The firms had told the top court that the Indian government never suggested at the time of the settlement that it was inadequate.

The Centre had argued that the enormity of the actual damage caused to human lives and the environment by the poisonous gas leak could not be assessed properly at the time of the settlement in 1989. It had urged the bench to grant enhanced compensation considering the unprecedented nature of the disaster.

Courtesy: India Today