The United Progressive Alliance government will explore whether the $470-million out-of-court settlement, arrived at between India and Union Carbide in 1989 in the Bhopal gas leak case, can be reviewed in the light of evidence that emerged in the intervening years.
On Thursday, the Cabinet approved all recommendations made by the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Bhopal, and asked Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati to examine whether a curative petition could be filed in the Supreme Court for this purpose.
The government, sources said, is resting its hopes on not just the fresh evidence but also paragraph 38 of the May 4, 1989 Supreme Court judgment, which, according to the GoM report, noted that “there may be scope for review if there was a serious miscarriage of justice or violation of constitutional and legal rights of the persons affected.”
The judgment went on to say: “Those who trust this court will not have cause for despair.”
Meanwhile, briefing journalists on the Cabinet's deliberations, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni clarified that the ex gratia payment (for which Rs. 650-700 crore has been set aside) would be made only to 45,000 victims of the gas tragedy, and not to the 5,74,375 persons who were originally compensated.
Contentious issue
Those entitled to ex gratia payments will include the kin of the dead (5,295), the permanently disabled (3,199), the temporarily disabled (33,672) and those afflicted with cancer (2,000) and renal diseases (1,000). This, according to the sources, is likely to be a contentious issue, but the GoM report notes that it will not be possible “at this distance of time” to reopen the classification of claims/cases made by the Welfare Commissioner.
These are among the 22 recommendations accepted by the government, which are to be implemented in a time-bound manner. They include fresh efforts to secure the extradition of the former Union Carbide chairman, Warren Anderson; filing of a second curative petition to reverse the dilution of the charges against the accused, the fast-tracking of the case against Dow Chemical in the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur, a revision application in the High Court against the judgment of the trial court and an appeal in the sessions court against the trial court judgment.
The other accepted recommendations include upgrading medical facilities, setting up an Indian Council of Medical Research unit in Bhopal, and clean-up of the UCC/UCIL site and its environs. The Plan of Action submitted by the Madhya Pradesh government for medical, social and economic rehabilitation to provide safe drinking water has been approved. For this, Rs. 272.75 crore has been set aside, the State's share bearing 25 per cent.
