The Madras High Court would take a call on Monday on letting free BW Maple, a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carrier owned by a firm instituted in Bermuda but operating out of Singapore, detained at Kamarajar port here after it collided with tanker vessel MT Dawn Kanchipuram on January 28 leading to largescale oil spill on the coastline of Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts.
After hearing preliminary arguments on a public interest litigation petition filed by a union of fishermen against the release of the vessel, the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar have directed Government Pleader (in-charge) T.N. Rajagopalan to file a status report on the investigation conducted into the issue so far by Minjur police and posted the case for orders on Monday.
During the course of hearing, petitioner’s counsel M. Nandhakumar urged the court to restrain the Nautical Surveyor-cum-Deputy Director General of Shipping from permitting BW Maple to set sail to Singapore. He contended that the vessel must be detained until all the claims arising out of the oil spill were compensated in full and the investigation into the incident was completed by the police.
On the other hand, counsel for Captain John Emmanuel Murray, Master of BW Maple, contended that that expenses to the tune of ₹8.84 crore incurred by the Central and State government authorities to contain pollution, that arose out of the collision, had been reimbursed. Further, the owners of BW Maple had on August 31 executed a bank guarantee for ₹203 crore in favour of Director General of Shipping.
“Although BW Maple is the non polluting ship (since the oil spilled only from MT Dawn Kanchipuram), the bank guarantee has been provided as an adequate security to meet their responsibilities. Thus even assuming, without admitting that the owners of BW Maple are held liable, more than sufficient security has been put up in favour of the Director General of Shipping,” a counter affidavit filed by the Master read.
Pointing out that it was MT Dawn Kanchipuram which was carrying 26,000 tonnes of motor spirit and 6,000 tonees of high speed diesel, Mr. Murray claimed that the entire spill was only from that vessel. He also pointed out that out of 1,12,051 applications received so far seeking compensation in connection with the incident, only 19,123 were found to be valid and the rest were either duplicate or bogus claims.
The owners of BW Maple, had suffered huge losses due to the detention of the vessel in India, the Master said and sought permission to take the ship, now in a sea worthy condition, to Keppel Shipyard in Singapore for commissioning of ballast water treatment management system, a mandatory requirement under the laws prevailing in the United States from where 45% of the LPG shipments of the world originate.
