Bhopal gas tragedy: Supreme Court won’t accept Centre’s ‘defective’ curative plea

Pointing out curable “defects”, the Supreme Court (SC) registry has sought additional “documents” from the Centre, so that its curative plea seeking a review of the 1996 SC judgment in the Bhopal gas leak case could be accepted as a proper petition for consideration by an appropriate bench.

The controversial verdict by a bench headed by then chief justice AM Ahmadi had reduced the gravity of offences committed by Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) chairman Warren Anderson and the company’s India executives that led to the leak killing 15,000 people and maiming lakhs. 

The additional documents have been sought through the office of the attorney general, who had filed the petition.

A lawyer privy to the objections raised by the registry said documents and other material needed to make the petition perfect may take at least a fortnight, after which a bench most probably headed by chief justice SH Kapadia may take it up for consideration.

The plea seeks to quash the 1996 judgment that mellowed down the offence of causing death (304-II IPC) to negligence (304-A IPC). While the former attracts a maximum jail term of 10 years, the latter carries a maximum sentence of two years. A Bhopal trial court had convicted eight accused, including then UCC (India) Ltd chairman Keshub Mahindra, on June 7, but they got bail.

The court has kept Anderson’s trial pending under the reduced section of 304-A. Ahmadi’s judgment related to the eight accused, but the trial court extended it to Anderson.