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Today, five organizations related to the December 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal issued a joint statement condemning the Supreme Court's dismissal of the Curative Petition.
They compared this decision to the apex court's settlement of the case in February 1989 and described it as a "judicial attack on the constitutional and legal rights of the Bhopal survivors."
The organizations resolved to continue their struggle for justice in Bhopal till all survivors are adequately compensated.
NGOs condemned Supreme court’s decision
Rashida Bee, the President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationary Karmchari Sangh said, the Supreme Court's dismissal of the Curative Petition was a result of the court's pro-corporate bias, which has denied the Bhopal victims their right to justice.
She added "the counsel for Union Carbide, which is evading charges of culpable homicide, was given a significant amount of time to speak, while the survivors' organizations' counsel was only given a mere 45 minutes. This decision seems to indicate that the bench subscribes to a "fugitive entitlement doctrine."
“The Supreme court judges dismissed the case for additional compensation due to their insistence that the case must attain finality in line with the wishes of the corporate counsel,” she said.
Balkrishna Namdeo, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogee Sangharsh Morcha said, it is not justifiable to impose finality when the corporation's crimes are still causing harm to people.
"Gas-affected individuals are still dying prematurely due to exposure-induced chronic diseases, including cancer. As the culprit remains a fugitive, and the pain and suffering of the victims and their descendants continue, how can the Supreme Court put an end to the injustice in Bhopal?
Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information & Action condemned the Supreme Court for deliberately ignoring arguments and facts presented by the survivors’ organizations.
“We presented official figures of injury and death analyzed by an international expert on epidemiology that proved the 1989 settlement has perpetrated a gross miscarriage of justice but the Supreme Court bench chose to blind themselves to it".
The bench said that only an argument of fraud could reopen that settlement, while entirely ignoring our counsel’s detailed submissions on the fraud committed by Union Carbide to procure the settlement of 1989,” Dhingra said.
“We refuse to accept the injustice delivered by the Supreme Court today,” said Nawab Khan, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila
Purush Sangharsh Morcha “we fought and won against the injustice of the settlement of 1989 and we will resume our fight again. We will fight in the court and we will fight on the streets till justice is done in the World’s worst corporate massacre,” he said.
Nousheen Khan of Children Against Dow Carbide said, “Today’s decision exposes the perversity of the Supreme Court bench that took the government to task for ignoring the health impact on the next generation but failed to hold the corporation accountable for the crime against the unborn.”
SC rejected the Centre's curative
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected the Centre's curative petition seeking more compensation from Union Carbide Corporation for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
However, the court directed the Centre to use the Rs 50 crore funds held by the RBI to meet the needs of the claimants. The disaster occurred when a lethal gas, methyl isocyanate, leaked from the Union Carbide plant, causing the death of over 3,000 people and inflicting severe injuries on thousands more.
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