New Delhi, March 01: The Supreme Court issued notices to Union Carbide, Union Carbide India Limited(UCIL), Eveready Industries Limited and Dow Chemicals on the Centre’s petition seeking an enhancement of compensation for the families of the victims of Bhopal Gas Leak tragedy.
The notice to Dow Chemical was issued yesterday on a petition filed by the Centre seeking transfer of the petition from Madhya Pradesh High Court to Supreme Court.
The Centre is seeking directions to Dow Chemical to pay for the removal of hazardous substances still lying in the premises of UCIL, Bhopal which has been taken over by Dow Chemical Company.
A Constitution bench comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia, Justices Altamas Kabir, R V Raveendran, M K Sharma and Aftab Alam fixed April 13 as the date for starting the hearing of three petitions filed by the Centre and the CBI.
The apex court has already issued notices on the CBI petition challenging the September 1996 judgement of the Supreme Court under which criminal charges against the top brass of UCIL Bhopal including Keshub Mahindra, the head of UCIL were dropped.
Charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was dropped against all the eight accused which carried a maximum sentence of 10 years. They were tried only for the offences of criminal negligence, given two years of imprisonment and were released on bail within minutes of their conviction and sentence.
It led to huge public outcry following which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appointed a nine-member group of Ministers to decide the future course of action in the matter.
The Centre is seeking enhancement of compensation to the victims from Rs 750 crore to Rs 7500 crore.
More than 15,000 residents of Bhopal lost their lives when the poisonous MIC gas from a leaking storage tank at Union Carbide plant enveloped the entire city on December 3, 1984.
Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson was allowed to leave India on December 7, 1984 under mysterious circumstances and has been declared an absconder in the criminal case.
The government is also trying to seek extradition of the 90-year-old Anderson from US to India and put him to trial for the offences.
The Centre and the CBI had filed curative petitions under Article 142 of the Constitution.
–UNI