Bhopal gas tragedy: Would pursue curative petition seeking additional funds for victims, Centre tells SC

New Delhi: The Centre would pursue its curative petition seeking Rs 7,844 crore as additional funds from successor firms of the US-based Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) for giving compensation to victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, the Supreme Court was informed on Tuesday.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice SK Kaul took note of the submission made by Attorney General R Venkataramani and directed the Centre to prepare a compilation within eight weeks in this regard.

"The Attorney General has taken a stand before us that the government would like to press the curative petition. A number of NGOs would like to be impleaded. However, counsel for respondents has questioned the maintainability of the petitions as they have come 19 years after the judgement.

"The government would represent plaints of persons who have suffered and thus a compilation would be required to be prepared by the office AG and the resp, insofar as the applicant's associations are concerned, we do not give any liberty to file any pleadings," the bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, A S Oka, Vikram Nath and JK Maheshwari said.

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The matter will now be taken up for hearing on 10 January, 2023.

The apex court had earlier asked the Centre to clarify its stand on whether it wants to go ahead with its curative petition seeking additional funds.

The UCC, now owned by Dow Chemicals, gave a compensation of $470 million (Rs 715 crore at the time of settlement in 1989) after the toxic methyl isocyanate gas leak from the Union Carbide factory on the intervening night of 2 and 3 December, 1984 killed over 3,000 people and affected 1.02 lakh more.

The apex court is to hear the curative petition filed by the Centre seeking a direction to Union Carbide and other firms for an additional Rs 7,844 crore over and above the earlier settlement amount of $470 million.

The survivors of the tragedy have been fighting for long for adequate compensation and proper medical treatment for ailments caused by the toxic gas leak.

The Centre had filed the curative petition in the apex court in December 2010 for enhanced compensation.

On 7 June, 2010, a Bhopal court had sentenced seven executives of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) to two years' imprisonment.

The then UCC chairman Warren Anderson was the prime accused in the case but did not appear for the trial.

On 1 February, 1992, the Bhopal CJM court had declared him as an absconder.

The courts in Bhopal had issued non-bailable warrants against Anderson twice in 1992 and 2009 before his death in September 2014.

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