How was the legal battle for bhopal gas victims dissatisfied
Answers
Case: Death of 4,000 people and injuries to nearly 1 lakh others in the gas leak at the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) factory.
Date: December 2-3, 1984.
Accused: Former UCC Chairman Warren Anderson and eight others.
Status: Charges diluted in September 1996; fresh charges yet to be filed.
Every December, on the anniversary of the world's worst industrial disaster, the streets of Bhopal witness a familiar ritual the burning of effigies of former UCC Chairman Warren Anderson, probably the most hated man in this city.
"Hang Anderson" is the most visible graffiti on the walls of the old city, which was engulfed by a thick pall of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas that leaked out of the UCC's pesticide plant on the night of December 2, 1984.
Few survivors, however, know that even if criminal responsibility is fixed against the accused, the maximum punishment for a crime which caused over 4,000 deaths will be just two years in jail.
Indeed, the Bhopal gas case, as it is known in legal circles, has brought out the very worst in the Indian judicial system. Twelve years after the disaster, criminal proceedings are yet to begin in right earnest.
Fresh charges will have to be framed after a Supreme Court ruling last September diluted the charge from "culpable homicide not amounting to murder" (under Section 304 Part II of the Indian Penal Code), punishable with a maximum of 10 years' imprisonment and fines, to "negligent and rash act leading to death" (under Section 304 A), punishable with a maximum of two years.
The CBI, which is prosecuting the accused, thought it fit not to press for a review of the dilution. Worse still, the UCC, which accepted "moral responsibility", has ignored the criminal proceedings so far.
Non-bailable warrants issued against Anderson four years ago are yet to be served and extradition notices ordered by the court of the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) of Bhopal have not been issued because successive governments have been wary of annoying US business houses.
On a visit to Bhopal last week, Prime Minister I.K. Gujral received with stoic silence a delegation of gas victims who pleaded for Anderson's extradition to stand trial. "I will look into it," was all Gujral would say, echoing his own words as foreign minister when a delegation of victims had met him in Delhi on April 16 last year.
"We have been let down not only by the Government and the CBI, but also the judiciary," laments Abdul Jabbar Khan, who heads the biggest organisation of surviving gas victims.
The criminal case itself seems jinxed ever since it was filed by the CBI in the CJM's court on December 1, 1987. Three companies - UCC, its Indian subsidiary Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) and Union Carbide Eastern Inc., Hong Kong - were named as accused along with Anderson, senior UCIL executives Keshub Mahindra, Vijay Gokhale and Kishore Kamdar, and five officials of the Bhopal plant.
Less than two years later, in February 1989, the Supreme Court and the Rajiv Gandhi government dropped a bombshell by announcing an out-of court settlement of $470 million (Rs 1,692 crore) on the $3 billion (Rs 10,800 crore) civil-compensation suit.
Curiously, while the settlement was on the civil suit filed by the government on behalf of the claimants, even the criminal proceedings were ordered to be dropped. It was only after the V.P. Singh government decided to support a petition filed in the Supreme Court by an NGO opposing the dropping of the criminal charges, that the case was restored in 1991.
Since then, the case has made little progress. Surprisingly, the CBI has failed to make out a strong prosecution case of culpable homicide to prove that company officials were aware of the possibility of such an accident and that they compromised on safety standards.
The company has made out a defence case saying it was a disgruntled factory worker who injected water into the system which led to the disastrous reaction in the MIC tank.
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