N. K. Premachandran, former Minister for Water Resources, S. Faizi, Environmental Expert Member of the Plachimada High Power Committee, Binoy Viswam, former Minister of Forests and Kutty Ahmed Kutty, former Minister of Local Self Government have called upon President Pranab Mukherjee to give assent to the Plachimada Coca Cola Victims Compensation Claims Tribunal Bill without further delay.
In a message emailed to the President on the occasion of his first visit to the State and address to the Assembly, they said that the land mark legislation unanimously passed by the House one and a half years ago was still awaiting Presidential assent. This delay should be investigated.
The Bill was unanimously passed by the Kerala Assembly in February 2011, following the study conducted by a 15 member multidisciplinary team chaired by the Additional Chief Secretary, and sent by the Governor for Presidential assent via the Ministry of Home Affairs in the end of March last year. The Home Ministry forwarded the Bill on April 13, 2011 to various related ministries for comments, and five ministries have duly submitted their categorical approval of the Bill.
They noted that beyond categorical approval, some ministries had in fact recommended to take stronger measures than the contents of the Bill. “Yet, it is shocking that the Bill has not been passed to the President for issuing assent, in spite of the Cabinet guidelines specifying not to delay such bills beyond six weeks of receipt.”
They added that the only ministry that had not positively commented on the Bill is the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The Ministry had repeated the argument of the Cola lawyers that the new law is repugnant to the Green Tribunal Act, 2010, obviously forgetting the time bar of five years set by the Act due to which it cannot address the Plachimada issue that is about ten years old. “It was unfortunate that the Ministry chose to take this uninformed position even as the country is seeking to assume global leadership in the environmental domain by hosting the Conference of Parties to the Biodiversity Convention and by holding its presidency.”
The Plachimada Bill, they said, is the fulfilment of the State's obligation in terms of Article 21 as interpreted by the Supreme Court and based on the polluter-pays-principle that has become an integral part of our jurisprudence.
“It was unfortunate that the Home Ministry chose to entertain the opinion on the Bill prepared by the Cola company’s lawyers, which was intriguing as there is no provision in the Presidential assent issuing process for entertaining the intervention of a private sector company, that too a multinational that was once expelled from our country, challenging a Bill passed by a State Assembly. However, if the opinion of the company was entertained then natural justice demanded hearing the view of the other side which in this case is the poor Cola victims of Plachimada, more so since the Cola company is supported by the most powerful government on earth and its diplomatic missions in the country while the Cola victims have no such luxuries to claim, but that was not done. Not only did they entertain the submission of the culprit but also sent the same to Kerala government asking for explanation!
“Sending the legal opinion of the Law Ministry or the Solicitor General of India seeking clarifications, if any, would have been far more appropriate. The untenable arguments of the company were replied by the Kerala Government and also by the environment expert member of the High Power Committee. Even then the Home Ministry is inordinately withholding the Bill.”
They recalled that seven members of Parliament from the State had met the former President and appraised her of the grave mistake the Home Ministry was making. The Water Resource Department had sent a reminder about the Bill, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had categorically told the public of the firm commitment of the government to the Bill passed by the Assembly, the affected local people had conducted democratic protests, with massive public support, at various locations, concern about the delay in obtaining Presidential assent had been repeatedly made in the State Assembly.
“This constitutes an attempt on the part of the Home Ministry to subvert the Constitutional process and an affront to the authority of the State Assembly. It is incomprehensible as to why the Home Ministry has chosen to protect the interest of the Cola Company against the interest of the State of Kerala that has enacted the Bill.”
