Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Why did it take so long for curative plea, Supreme Court asks govt

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation why there was a delay of over 14 years in approaching it for rectification of its judgement which had diluted the charges against the accused in 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.

The agency, however, admitted that it had slept over the patently unjust judgement and moved the court only after a public outcry over a trial court decision which punished the accused with a 2-year imprisonment in the world's worst industrial disaster case.

In 1996, a SC bench headed by then Chief Justice AM Ahmadi had diluted the charges against the eight accused in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.

At the outset of the hearing, a five judge Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice SH Kapadia, Justices Altamas Kabir, RV Raveendran, B Sudershan Reddy and Aftab Alam asked why there was such a delay in seeking rectification of the 1996 judgement which had diluted the charges against the accused persons from Section 304-II to 304A of the Indian Penal Code.

While 304-II entails a maximum punishment of 10 years imprisonment on the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, Section 304A punishes persons with a maximum of 2 years jail term for rash and negligent actions.

Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati on behalf of CBI and the Centre said: "We may have made mistakes. When the trial court judgement came on June 7, 2010, and a huge public outcry followed, we examined the matter and found that something was staring us at the face - a two year punishment for the worst industrial disaster in the world that killed more than 5,000 innocent people."

Vahanvati said, "the Supreme Court in 1996 took into account the cumulative omissions and commissions that led to the tragedy but strangely ruled that these were fit for fastening Section 304A and not Section 304-II. It erred in saying that the accused did not do anything patently criminal on the fateful intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, leading to leakage of deadly methyl iso-cyanate gas."

He said, "something patently unjust has happened. Thousands of innocents lost their lives because of a series of omissions in the plant management's part to taking steps towards maintenance of the Union Carbide plant since 1982. Should the judgement be allowed to stand and deny justice even if 26 years have passed?"