By IANS,
New Delhi: In what has been termed a huge setback for the victims of the world’s worst industrial disaster, the Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) petition seeking more stringent punishment for then United Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) chairman Keshub Mahindra and six others in the Bhopal gas tragedy case.
The apex court, by its 1996 verdict, had diluted the charges against the accused from Section 304 (A) of the Indian Penal Code — culpable homicide not amounting to murder, to Section 304 (II) — criminal negligence.
The accused were convicted by a Bhopal court last year of causing death due to negligence that carries punishment of only two years. However, all seven quickly secured bail.
The CBI had moved the apex court seeking a direction of the framing of charges against Mahindra and others for culpable homicide not amounting to murder that carries a maximum imprisonment of 10 years.
Rejecting this Wednesday, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, described as “wrong and without any basis” the contention that despite additional evidence emerging during the trial of the accused, warranting the framing of higher charges, the trial court could not do so as it was helpless in the wake of the 1996 judgment of the apex court.
“The assumption (that the trial court constrained by 1996 judgment of the top court) is wrong and without any basis. It stems from a complete misapprehension in regard to the binding nature of the 1996 judgment”, Kapadia said, speaking for the bench that also included Justice Altamas Kabir, Justice R.V.Raveendran, Justice B.Sudershan Reddy and Justice Aftab Alam.
The Union Carbide disaster, in which poisonous methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the plant on the night of Dec 2-3, 1984, killed 3,000 people instantly and 25,000 over the years. It also affected 100,000 people and estimates are that more than 500,000 continue to suffer from ill effects of the gas.
Wednesday’s ruling was a huge setback to the victims of the world’s worst industrial disaster, said Bhopal activists.
Many squarely blamed the CBI for failing to defend the victims of the disaster.
“We are not demanding charity, we are demanding justice which has not been done in 26 years,” Abdul Jabbar, a indignant survivor and convenor of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udhyog Sangathan, told IANS.
The government said it would abide by the Supreme court verdict.
“After this matter came up, the GoM (group of ministers) in its due wisdom decided to go for the curative petition. After obtaining the opinion from the learned Attorney General of India, we had filed the curative petition and the Supreme Court in its wisdom has dismissed it. We will abide by the decision,” Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily said.
The CBI put up a brave face.
“The trial is still going on at the Bhopal court and we are hopeful that we will earnestly pursue the case,” CBI spokesperson Dharni Mishra told IANS.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) termed the Supreme Court verdict a “telling comment” on the government’s attitude towards the case.
The government was not interested in giving justice to the victims of the disaster, the BJP maintained.
The Supreme Court judgment said: “In our view, on the basis of the material on record, it is wrong to assume that the 1996 judgment is a fetter against the proper exercise of the power by the court of the competent jurisdiction under the relevant provision of the (Criminal Procedure) Code.”
“No decision by any court, this court not excluded, can be read in a manner as to nullify the express provisions of the Code and the 1996 judgment never intended to do so”, the judgment said.
In the 1996 judgment”, the court noted that it “was at pains to make it absolutely clear that its findings were based on materials gathered in investigation and brought before the court till that stage.”
It further said that if the trial court “failed to appreciate correct legal position and misread the (apex court) decision of September 13, 1996 as tying his hands from exercising the powers”, this could have been “corrected by the appellate/revisional court.”
The judgment noted that the revision petition filed by the CBI and Madhya Pradesh government before the sessions court in Bhopal, which is still pending, had asserted this position.
Apart from Keshub Mahindra, the other accused in the case are then UCIL managing director Vijay Gokhale, vice president Kishore Kamdar, works manager J.N. Mukund, production manager S.P. Choudhary, plant superintendent K.V. Shetty and production assistant S.I. Quereshi.