NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Noy 15 criticised the Indian Government for not directly seeking a review of the 470 million dollar compensation agreement for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster and asserted that the “settlement should go” if ‘the amount agreed upon was inadequate.
The court is currently rehearing a petition on the constitutional validity of the order settling all disputes arising out of the Bhopal gas leak against the Union Carbide with the payment of 470 million dollars. The court had not even been invited to sit in judgement over the settlement and had only been asked to pass an order, Justice Venkata chelliah said, pointing out that the criticism of the apex body for its role in the compensation agreement was unjustified.
He said the court was prepared to review its decisions, But an attempt was being made to put across that the settlement was an error of the court.
“This is wrong. We are of the view that the settlement should go if it is inadequate,”
Article extracted from this publication >> November 23, 1990
