Black Day for justice: Bhopal survivors

With the Supreme Court on Wednesday rejecting a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea asking for retrial into the gas tragedy, the victims said it is a ?Black Day? for justice.

?Today will go down as another black day for justice,? Bhopal survivor organisations said in reaction to the Supreme Court’s order rejecting the curative petition filed by the CBI.

?Further to the dismissal of the appeal filed by three Bhopal organisations against Justice Ahmadi’s controversial 1996 order, the Supreme Court today has heaped yet more injustice on the Bhopal victims,? the four organisations said.

In 1997, the Supreme Court dismissed a review petition filed by three survivor organisations without conducting even one hearing. The petition was against Justices Ahmadi?s order that quashed the charge of culpable homicide and instituted a charge of death caused by negligence against the Indian accused.

?Today’s Supreme Court order is problematic on many counts. First, by saying that the 1996 SC order was not binding on the trial court, it expects a lower court to act against a specific order of the Supreme Court. This presumption is entirely contrary to the universal practice of the courts.

?FIRs quashed by the Supreme Court are never reborn by magisterial acts. More importantly,the Supreme Court has ignored the irremediable injustice suffered by the victims through the practical effect of the 1996 judgment,? said the organizations.

?Second, it has dismissed survivors’ prayers along with CBI’s petitions on grounds that the CBI had neither sought revision of the 1996 order, nor provided sufficient explanation for the delay of almost 14 years. However, it has made no comment on the merits of the survivors’ review petition of 1996 given that their petition had been dismissed without a hearing.?

?The accused are yet to spend a single day in jail, while 22,000 victims have been condemned to death with lakhs more suffering. The Supreme Court has allowed the accused to take advantage of the Government’s lapses,? said Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action.

The organizations pointed out that the Supreme Court has itself proclaimed in the case of Zahira Sheikh that where prosecution fails in providing justice, the apex court could step in.

?Nothing could qualify better as a failure of prosecution than the Bhopal case, why didn?t the Supreme Court step in do justice in Bhopal?? asked an irate Rashida Bee, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationary Karmchari Sangh.

According to the organisations, Keshub Mahindra and other Indian officials have committed mass murders in Bhopal. They point to documentary evidence that establish that these officials knew that the MIC plant design sent by Union Carbide, USA in 1973 was based on ?untested technology?.

They said that in 1977 these officials planned and implemented cost cutting measures that made the hazardously designed plant even more unsafe. In 1982 Keshub Mahindra and others ignored the findings of Union Carbide safety audit that pointed out that there were 30 spots in the factory where a major disaster could occur.

?If Keshub Mahindra and other accused get away with a two years jail sentence, the lives and health of the ordinary people of this country will never be secure from corporate crime.? Said Balkrishna Namdeo of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha.

The judgement came as a big blow to the Bhopal gas leak victims and justice seekers who slammed the verdict, broke down in tears and then vowed to keep fighting till death.

The CBI had sought review of a 1996 judgement that had diluted charges against the seven accused from culpable homicide not amounting to murder to criminal negligence.

Slamming the CBI for delaying in filing the plea for 14 years, the court said “no satisfactory explanation has been given by the CBI and Madhya Pradesh government on filing a curative petition after a lapse of 14 years.”

The court said the judgement in 1996 was “never a fetter for the CBI or Madhya Pradesh government to seek enhancement of charges.”

The Bhopal survivors and activists were livid.

“This is a great injustice to the Bhopal people,” said Bhopal activist Satinath Sarangi while in Bhopal the survivors and victims were in tears after the court setback.

Rashida Bi, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, speaking to IBNS said: “The Supreme Court punished us for the mistake of CBI and we could never imagine that the highest court of our country can be so unjust to us.”

“This is a country without human rights,” she said breaking down in tears.

“We are bringing out a rally in evening to protest the verdict. It is a shame that USA could enter another country and kill Osama for his crime while our country does not even legally fight for us and could let go a US company that killed so many people in Bhopal,” she said.

“The dead and the living, no one will ever forgive the justice system, but we will fight,” she said.

Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily said he would abide by the court and not pass value judgement.

On the intervening night of 2/3 December 1984, the inhabitants of the city of Bhopal became victims of the world’s worst industrial disaster.

40 tonnes of methyl iscocyanate (MIC – a highly volatile toxic chemical) stored at the pesticide plant – owned by Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), USA – was contaminated with water and other impurities.

As a result, a mixture of deadly gases escaped from the factory killing several thousands of people and inflicting grievous injuries on at least 500,000 others.

Last year, a lower court in Bhopal had awarded mere two years of imprisonment to seven convicted Union Carbide officials for the incident while not mentioning US-based Warren Anderson, the former Union Carbide chief.

A Delhi court in March permitted the CBI to seek the extradition of Warren Anderson in connection with the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.

Anderson, now over 90, had been proclaimed offender by the Bhopal chief judicial magistrate in 1993 after he jumped bail, which he had procured following his arrest on Dec 7, 1984.

He had flown out of India soon with the help of Indian authorities after his bail, never to return.