Supreme Court asks HC to hear Bhopal gas victims' claim of ‘misclassification' of illnesses on merits
A Bench of Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai and Justice Vinod Chandran asked the High Court to decide the case on its own merits. The apex court clarified that it had not ventured into the merits of the plea.
Senior advocates Raju Ramachandran, Karuna Nundy and advocate Prasanna S. appeared for the victims' groups, including Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha.
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They had urged the top court to direct the Centre to identify these 'misclassified' victims and categorise them correctly under the provisions of the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act, 1985 so that they would receive adequate compensation to cover their medical treatment.
The Centre had termed the Bhopal gas leak tragedy 'the world's largest industrial disaster'. Both the government and the Supreme Court had both agreed in the past that the loss of innocent lives in the aftermath of the fatal escape of Methyl Isocynate (MIC) gas from the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, in the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984 was 'horrific' in every sense.
'A long history of litigation attempting to recover damages from the US-headquartered Union Carbide Corporation (now part of Dow Chemicals Corporation) ended with the dismissal by the Supreme Court of the curative petitions in July 2023 wherein it was made clear that any shortfall in compensation to be paid to the victims were a responsibility of the Union government,' the petition said.
The organisations said they had data to show that survivors suffering from cancer and kidney failure as a result of toxic gas exposure were classified under the category of 'minor/temporary injury'.
Bhopal gas tragedy: Supreme Court refuses to interfere with HC order on disposal of hazardous waste
'All these cases ought to have been added as a permanent disability category,' the groups had submitted.
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