Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Shock to Central Government from Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the Centre’s curative plea seeking an additional Rs 7,844 crore from the successor companies of Union Carbide Corporation to pay additional compensation to the victims of the December 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. More than 3,000 people were killed in this tragedy and the environment was also badly damaged.

The top court also rapped the Center for not formulating an insurance policy for the victims in the context of an affidavit given to the court earlier and termed it as “gross negligence”.

The top court said, “Being a welfare state, the responsibility was given to the central government to remove the loopholes and formulate relevant insurance policies. Surprisingly, we were told that no such insurance policy was made. This is gross negligence on the part of the Government of India and in violation of the directions issued in the review judgment of this Court. Center cannot request to fix the responsibility of UCC by taking negligence on this.