- Thursday, April 03, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday (14) refused the Narendra Modi government’s plea seeking more compensation from Union Carbide Corporation for victims of a gas-leak disaster in Bhopal in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, Reuters reported.
The leak was one of the world’s biggest industrial disasters that took place in the intervening night of December 3 and 4. The leakage of methyl isocyanate gas from a pesticide unit owned by the American firm led to poisoning of more than half a million people and officially, 5,000 deaths were reported.
The Indian authorities sued Union Carbide and it agreed to pay $470 million in damages in an out-of-court settlement in 1989.
In 2010, the Indian government approached the apex court seeking enhanced compensation for the affected.
Dow Chemical, which currently owns Union Carbide, denied liability saying it took charge of the company a decade after Union Carbide addressed the liabilities.
A five-judge bench said in its ruling, “We believe this would not be the appropriate course of action or method to impose a greater liability on the UCC (Union Carbide) than it initially agreed to bear,” the Reuters report added.
“We are equally dissatisfied with the Union of India for being unable to furnish any rationale for raking up this issue more than two decades after the incident.”
The Union Carbide plant, built in the late 1960s, was seen as a symbol of industrialisation in the south Asian nation, creating thousands of jobs for the poor and manufacturing cheap pesticides for several farmers.
According to thousands of people who survived, their children and grandchildren are still struggling with chronic health issues as a result of the disaster.
