India: Court rejects extra redress for Bhopal gas victims
March 14, 2023
The country's top court rejected a government plea asking for an additional 78.4 billion rupees to be paid to victims of the gas tragedy from 1984. An out-of-court settlement was reached in 1989.
Decades after the tragedy, residents complain that they suffer from ill effectsImage: Prakash Hatvalne/AP Photo/picture alliance
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India's Supreme Court rejected a plea by the government on Tuesday, seeking more compensation for victims of a 1984 toxic gas leak.
The leak in the central Indian city of Bhopal is known as one of the worst industrial disasters in the world.
Thousands of survivors say they, their children, and even grandchildren, are still struggling with chronic health problems as a result of the toxic waste left behind by the leak.
What the court said
"We believe this would not be the appropriate course of action or method to impose a greater liability on the UCC (Union Carbide) than it initially agreed to bear," said the five-judge bench, dismissing the new petition.
The court added it was "dissatisfied" with the government for bringing up the issue after many years, with no rationale behind it. It also noted that a settlement can only be set aside on the grounds of fraud, but no such claim had been made by the Union of India, as per Live Law, an Indian legal news site.
Remembering Bhopal – decades later
The victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster in India have been fighting for their rights for 30 years. Award-winning Magnum photographer Raghu Rai has documented their lives on behalf of Amnesty International.
To this day, people from deprived areas of the central Indian city of Bhopal still live in the vicinity of the chemical factory. 30 years ago, the pesticide factory leaked toxic cyanide gas, killing more than 20,000 people and leaving many more with serious illnesses.
Safreen lives next door to victims of the disaster. Pictures and accounts of the events that unfolded in 1984 are now part of her life. In the background: a statue in honor of those who died in the tragedy.
In the wake of the disaster, doctors, scientists and activists founded the Sambhavna Trust. Thanks to the trust there is now – among other things – a clinic based in one of the hardest-hit areas, J.P. Nagar. To this day, many of the survivors still suffer from respiratory illnesses or kidney damage.
Rampyaree Bai, who survived the disaster, has been waiting for 30 years for compensation. While in 1989 Union Carbide, the US owner of the chemical factory, reached an out-of-court settlement agreeing to pay 470 million USD to the Indian government, some victims have yet to be compensated.
Union Carbide now belongs to the US multinational corporation Dow Chemical. In a statement, a company spokesperson said the responsibility lies with the Indian authorities. Activists continue to demand that the Indian state assumes its responsibility.
In this picture, protesters make their way to residence of Madhya Pradesh's Chief Minister. They demand adequate compensation and that the official death toll - which they believe to be too low - be revised.
To draw attention to their fate, the demonstrators have decided to re-enact some of the tragic events of 1984. Back then, the streets of the city's poor areas were strewn with thousands of bodies covered by white plastic sheets.
The government had sought for the case to be reopened and an additional 78.4 billion rupees (€889 million, $952 million) to be paid by successor firms to the victims.
The Supreme Court directed a sum of 500 million rupees held with the Reserve Bank of India to be used to clear the pending compensation claims, reported NDTV news channel.
What happened in Bhopal
On December 3, 1984, there was a gas leak in the pesticide factory owned by Union Carbide Corporation. More than half a million people were exposed to the poisonous gas, and the official death toll was more than 5,000.
The government had sued the company, and an out-of-court settlement of $470 million (€439 million) in damages had been agreed upon.
The Indian government once again approached the Supreme Court in 2010, seeking further compensation for the victims.
Union Carbide is now owned by Dow Chemical, which denied liability saying it bought the company 10 years after it had reached a settlement with the government.
Thousands of survivors of the tragedy have said they and their children and grandchildren still suffer from chronic health issues due to the toxic waste left behind.
