Supreme Court dismisses curative plea seeking additional compensation for Bhopal Gas Tragedy Victims
This curative petition was filed by the government in 2010 when Dr. Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister. A similar plea filed by the CBI seeking enhancement of punishment has been dismissed by the Top Court.
The Supreme Court today dismissed a curative petition filed by the Central Government against Union Carbide Corporation for a direction of additional compensation of 1.2 billion dollars (Rs 7413 crore) for the victims of Bhopal gas disaster.
A Constitution Bench of Justices SK Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, AS Oka, Vikram Nath and JK Maheshwari noted that the curative petition had no basis in legal principles.
"We are dissatisfied with the Union for raking up decades old issue without arguing any rationale”, the bench observed while directing that the INR 50 crores deposited with the RBI shall be used to satisfy the pending claims.
Notably, the five-judge bench had reserved its judgment on the Centre's plea on January 12, 2023.
In September last year, the Supreme Court had sought the Central Government's stand in the said curative petition which was filed way back in 2010.
Justice Kaul had then remarked that the petition revolved around unfortunate incidents and the question was whether compensation could be redetermined.
The curative plea had sought a re-examination of the apex court’s 1989 judgment which had fixed compensation at USD 470 million, contending that the 1989 settlement was seriously impaired.
Centre contended that compensation, determined in 1989, was arrived at on the basis of assumptions of truth unrelated to realities.
The unfortunate incident occurred in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, when toxic gas, methyl isocyanate (MIC), escaped from Union Carbide India Limited and resulted in over 5000 deaths and over 5 lakh persons being injured besides loss of livestock and loss of property to many.
Case Title: UoI And Ors. vs. M/s. Union Carbide Corporation And Ors.