SC dismisses CBI's curative petition on Bhopal

New Delhi, May 11 (PTI) In an apparent setback to the
campaign for those seeking stringent punishment for the
accused in the Bhopal gas disaster, the Supreme Court on
Wednesday dismissed CBI's curative petition against an earlier
apex court judgement that diluted charges against the accused.
A five-judge constitutional bench, headed by Chief
Justice S H Kapadia, however, left a window of opportunity
open saying the pending proceedings before the Sessions court
against the Chief Judicial Magistrate's judgement awarding two
years sentence to the accused, including Union Carbide India
Chairman Keshub Mahindra will not be influenced by any order
passed by it.
The bench said that the CBI and the MP government have
failed to come out with a satisfactory explanation on filing
the curative petition after a lapse of 14 years.
The unanimous order was passed by the bench that
included justices Altamas Kabir, R V Raveendran, B Sudershan
Reddy and Aftab Alam.
India's premier investigation agency Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) and the Madhya Pradesh (MP) government
filed the curative petitions after a public outcry over what
was considered as a mild punishment for a tragedy that claimed
over 15,000 lives in December 1984 and had left several
thousands maimed by the leakage of deadly Methyl Isocyanate
gas.
In 1996, a two-judge bench of the apex court, headed
by the then Chief Justice A H Ahmadi had diluted the charges
against the accused from Section 304 Part II of the Indian
Penal Code (IPC) providing for a maximum of ten years
imprisonment to Section 304(A) that deals with rash and
negligence act with a maximum punishment of two years.
The CBI and the MP government have filed revision
petitions in the Sessions court against the judgement of the
Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Bhopal, which had awarded two
years jail term to various accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy
case.
The CBI had sought recall of the apex court's
14-year-old judgement that had diluted the charges against the
accused, who were prosecuted just for the offence of being
negligent.
In its plea, the CBI had sought restoration of
stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder
instead of death caused due to negligence against the accused
in the world's worst industrial disaster.
Madhya Pradesh government had also moved the apex
court, endorsing the CBI plea for review of the September 1996
judgement by which the accused persons were tried for the
offence of criminal negligence which resulted in a lighter
punishment of two years' jail term to Mahindra and six others
on June 7, 2010.
The others who escaped with lighter punishment
included Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) erstwhile Managing
Director Vijay Gokhale, its 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.
The apex court had on August 31 last decided to
re-examine its own judgement that led to lighter punishment of
two years imprisonment for all the seven convicts.
The verdict had sparked a nationwide outrage following
which the government set up a group of ministers and filed
a curative petition against the lighter punishment for those
responsible for the gas tragedy.
Earlier, Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati,
appearing for the CBI, had pleaded the court to review its
1996 judgement saying that the investigating agency's decision
to file the curative petition was taken on the facts "which
shook our conscience".
Requesting the apex court to modify its earlier order,
he had said, "It is our duty to do justice and it should
prevail in public interest".
"Lots of values are involved in it and it was one of
the rarest situation," he had pleaded.
Senior advocate Ram Jethmlani, appearing for
81-year-old professor Ramaswamy R Iyer who had intervened in
the case, had, however, accused CBI of "shedding crocodile
tears" and pleaded with the court to ask the government to
reveal information on how it negotiated with the Union Carbide
on the compensation for victims.
He had further said politicians and bureaucrats have
messed up the entire issue.