New Delhi: The Supreme Court has rejected the curative petition of the Central Government to increase the compensation of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy. In this petition, a demand was made to provide additional compensation of about 7800 crores to the gas victims from Union Carbide.
A 5-judge bench headed by Justice SK Kaul had reserved the verdict on January 12 this year. The government had said that the victims cannot be left in the lurch.
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said there was no rationale by the Centre to rake up the issue two decades after the settlement.
The court added that a sum of Rs 50 crore lying with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the victims shall be utilised by the Union of India to satisfy pending claims of victims.
Centre had sought additional compensation from Dow
After the gas tragedy, Union Carbide Corporation paid compensation of $470 million to the victims. But the victims appealed to the court demanding more compensation.
The Center has sought additional compensation of Rs 7,844 crore from Dow Chemicals to the victims of the 1984 gas tragedy. For this, a curative petition was filed in the Supreme Court in December 2010.
Death figure from gas tragedy much higher
Balakrishna Namdeo, president of the Gas Peedit Pensionbhogi Sangharsh Morcha, pointed out that after stopping the registration of death claims in 1997, the government was telling the Supreme Court that only 5,295 people died in the disaster.
Official records show that since 1997 thousands of people have died from diseases caused by the disaster. The real figure of deaths is more than 25 thousand.
According to Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, Union Carbide was aware that the gas leak would cause permanent damage. This thing was also hidden from the government.
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