M A I N   N E W S

SC reopens Bhopal gas leak case

New Delhi, August 31
Fourteen years after it had diluted charges in the Bhopal gas leak case, the Supreme Court today virtually reopened its own judgment that led to lighter punishment of two-year imprisonment for the accused, including former Union Carbide India chairman Keshub Mahindra.

The court sought response from the seven accused on the CBI plea seeking restoration of the stringent charge of culpable homicide, which attracts a maximum punishment of 10 years’ jail, against them for the world’s worst industrial disaster that left over 15,000 persons dead and thousands maimed.

In chamber proceedings, a bench comprising Chief Justice SH Kapadia and Justices Altamas Kabir and RV Raveendran, issued notices on the curative petition filed by the CBI seeking recall of the apex court’s 1996 judgment that had diluted the offence.

The court decision was welcomed by an outfit fighting for justice to survivors of the worst industrial disaster as also by the country’s top law officer---Attorney General GE Vahanvati. The curative petition was filed after a nationwide outrage over the trial court judgment in the 26-year-old case following which the Centre appointed a Group of Ministers (GoM) to recommend steps including ways to get the punishment enhanced.

The charge under Section 304 part-II was diluted to Section 304A by a bench comprising the then Chief Justice AM Ahmadi and Justice S B Majmudar on the plea of the accused in the 1984 gas disaster case. Today’s decision of the court was communicated to the Vahanvati and the matter will be heard after the completion of process of service of the notice. The CBI has sought reconsideration of the September 13, 1996 apex court judgment, which had whittled down the charge to ‘causing death due to rash and negligent act’ against Mahindra and six others. Besides Mahindra, Vijay Gokhale, the then managing director of UCIL, Kishore Kamdar, then vice- president, JN Mukund, then works manager, SP Choudhary, then production manager, KV Shetty, then plant superintendent and SI Quereshi, then production assistant were convicted and sentenced to two-year jail by a trial court in Bhopal on June 7 this year. — PTI