Compensation for 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy victims: SC reserves verdict on Centre’s curative plea

New Delhi, Jan 12 (FN Agency) Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on the Centre’s 2010 curative plea for reopening of its settlement with Union Carbide for raising the amount of compensation for 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy victims. A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, and also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Abhay S Oka, Vikram Nath and JK Maheshwari, heard the curative petition filed by the Centre and also heard arguments from other parties and reserved its verdict. The Supreme Court reserved its verdict today on Centre’s 2010 curative petition demanding additional compensation from Union Carbide for the victims of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.

The Centre’s curative plea sought for enhanced compensation for the victims sought a direction to Union Carbide and other firms for over Rs 7,400 crore additional amount over and above the earlier settlement amount of USD 470 million (RS 715 crore at the time of settlement in 1989) for paying compensation to the gas tragedy victims. The government sought a re-examination of the apex court’s February 14, 1989 judgment which had fixed compensation at USD 470 million, contending that the 1989 settlement was seriously impaired. The contention of the Central government was that the compensation, determined in 1989, was arrived on the basis of assumptions of truth unrelated to realities. The Bhopal gas tragedy, is one of the world’s worst industrial disaster, had claimed the lives of several thousand people after a deadly gas leaked from the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984.