Section 17(b): The Supplier's Liability

In one line

The operator who has paid may go back against the supplier whose defective equipment caused the accident, and no international convention says he may.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 17 provides that the operator of the nuclear installation, after paying the compensation for nuclear damage in accordance with section 6, shall have a right of recourse where (a) such right is expressly provided for in a contract in writing; (b) the nuclear incident has resulted as a consequence of an act of supplier or his employee, which includes supply of equipment or material with patent or latent defects or sub-standard services; or (c) the nuclear incident has resulted from the act of commission or omission of an individual done with the intent to cause nuclear damage.

A currency note, as of September 2026. The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, 2025 (Act No. 39 of 2025, the SHANTI Act) was enacted in December 2025 but is not yet in force as of September 2026; on commencement its section 91 repeals this Act, so section 17(b) is the law until then. The new Act drops the supplier clause. Its section 16 gives the operator, after paying compensation as specified in its Second Schedule, a right of recourse only where (a) such a right is expressly provided for in a contract in writing, or (b) the nuclear incident occurred as a result of an act or omission of an individual with the intention to cause nuclear damage; nothing in it corresponds to clause (b) of section 17. Section 67 keeps the ten and twenty year periods, with a proviso for stolen or lost material, running from the Central Government's notification of the incident under section 26.

Reading the section

The right arises only after payment. "After paying the compensation for nuclear damage in accordance with section 6". So it is a right of recourse, not a defence and not a joinder: the operator pays the victim first and recovers afterwards. The victim is never sent to the supplier.

Clause (a), the contractual right. Recourse where the contract in writing expressly provides for it. That clause is unremarkable and appears in the international instruments: a supplier may agree to indemnify.

Clause (b), and this is the famous one. Recourse where the incident has resulted as a consequence of an act of supplier or his employee, and the words that follow are the operative ones: "which includes supply of equipment or material with patent or latent defects or sub-standard services".

Clause (c), the intentional act. Recourse where the incident resulted from the act of commission or omission of an individual done with the intent to cause nuclear damage.