HC upholds notice to Dow in Bhopal disaster case

A case pertaining to the worst industrial calamity in world history, the Bhopal gas disaster of 1984, continues to drag on in Indian courts long after Union Carbide Corp, the perpetrating company, has been bought and sold.

All of Carbide's senior officials are probably beyond the reach of Indian law, including chief executive Warren Anderson who is reported to be senile by now.

But procedures continue. The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Saturday denied a petition filed by Dow Chemical Pvt Ltd – which bought over Union Carbide in 2001 – seeking dismissal of a show cause notice issued in 2005 in relation to the leakage of lethal gas from its Bhopal factory in Madhya Pradesh.

A magistrate's court in Bhopal had issued a show cause notice to Dow Chemical in January 2005 in response to a public interest litigation filed in 2005 by NGOs seeking more answerability for the thousands killed and many more diseased for life by the leakage of methyl isocyanate gas from the Carbide plant.

Dow Chemical International Pvt Ltd has made it clear that liabilities related to the disaster were outside the purview of its purchase agreement with Carbide; and US courts have upheld its stand.
Some NGOs have not given up on their attempts to make Dow answerable for the disaster; and many people think that this is justified since the government and the Supreme Court under-reacted at the time.

On Saturday, a plea to close the case was dismissed by Justice G S Solanki of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.