The Supreme Court Constitution Bench has decided to hear the plea relating to the compensation to the victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy on October 11. The bench has in the meanwhile also asked for the Centre’s view and stand on the same.
A Constitution Bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul has given instructions for the Central government about its stand on the curative petition filed by the previous government in 2010.
In the curative plea it was mentioned that the Rs 7,400 crore were asked as additional funds from successor firms of US-based Union Carbide Corporation, which is now owned by Dow Chemicals, for giving compensation to victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy.
The matter has been posted for hearing by the bench on October 11.
The bench has informed that the Counsel would like to obtain instructions as to the stand of the government, as the said petition has been moved by them.
The curative plea by the Centre had sought for directions to Union Carbide and other firms for about Rs 7,400 crore additional amount over and above the earlier settlement amount of USD 470 million for paying compensation to the gas tragedy victims.
The government has asked for the re-examination of the top court’s judgement of February 14, 1989 which had fixed compensation at USD 470 million, saying that the 1989 settlement was impaired in true senses.
The Central government contended that the compensation, determined in 1989, was arrived at the basis of wrong assumptions of truth and miscalculations.
The Bhopal gas tragedy in India has been named as the world’s worst industrial disaster,which took lives of thousand a of people and leaving many many more devastated for a life after a deadly gas leaked from the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984.