Govt moves SC seeking more for Bhopal gas victims
04 Dec 2010
26 years after the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in which over 5,000 people were killed and about 500,000 injured, the union government on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking an additional compensation of Rs7,844 crore for the victims.
In a curative petition seeking to enhance the compensation of $470 million determined by the Supreme Court in 1989 on the ground that this settlement was arrived at on the basis of assumptions unrelated to realities.
The world's biggest largest industrial disaster was caused when deadly methyl isocyanide leaked from a Union Carbide plant in the Madhya Pradesh city. The government as parens patriae (parent of the nation) of the victims has already filed a curative petition for restoration of the stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the accused.
The petition, drawn by advocate Devadatt Kamat and settled by attorney general G E Vahanvati, has cited as respondents the Union Carbide Corp, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemicals Co; Dow Chemicals of the US; McLeod Russel India, Kolkata, and Eveready Industries, Kolkata.
The petition seeks a review of the 4 May 1989 and 3 October 1991 orders, contending that the 1989 settlement was seriously impaired. An additional compensation of Rs675.96 crore under various categories had become due and payable in 1989.
''Since the said amount is being claimed in 2010, several aspects such as devaluation of the rupee, interest rate, purchasing power parity and the inflation index have to be factored in while computing the claim amount,'' so the total would come to Rs5,786 crore, the petition says.
