Bhopal: What Happened, and the Litigation That Followed

In one line

The worst industrial accident in history was settled for 470 million United States dollars in 1989, and the Supreme Court closed the file for good on 14 March 2023.

Everything in this module exists because of the night of 2 December 1984. The Environment (Protection) Act 1986, Chapter IVA of the Factories Act, the hazardous chemical rules of 1989, the Public Liability Insurance Act 1991 and the National Green Tribunal Act 2010 are all, directly or indirectly, its consequence. A student who can narrate the litigation accurately can answer half the questions in this paper.

What happened

The Supreme Court's own account, in its order of 4 May 1989, is the safest thing for a student to reproduce.

The Bhopal gas leak tragedy occurred at midnight on 2 December 1984 by the escape of deadly chemical fumes from the appellant's pesticide factory. The Court described it as a horrendous industrial mass disaster, unparalleled in its magnitude and devastation, and a ghastly monument to the dehumanising influence of inherently dangerous technologies. The tragedy took an immediate toll of 2,660 lives and left tens of thousands physically impaired or affected in various degrees. What added grim poignance to it was that the enterprise was using methyl isocyanate, a lethal toxic poison whose potential for destruction was matched only by the lack of any package of relief procedures based on adequate scientific knowledge of how to neutralise its effects.

Two things in that passage do real work in an answer. The first is the immediate toll of 2,660, because the number of deaths eventually recognised was very much higher and the discrepancy is what the 2023 curative petitions were about. The second is the absence of any medical response, because that is the fact the disclosure duty in section 41B of the Factories Act, now section 84 of the OSH Code 2020, was written to prevent.

The litigation, in order

In the United States. Proceedings for compensation were begun in the courts of the United States, where Judge Keenan made efforts to secure interim relief. The American proceedings ended in a dismissal on the ground of forum non conveniens, remitting the litigation to India.

The Act of 1985. Parliament passed the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act 1985, making the Union of India the exclusive representative of every victim. The next chapter takes that Act on its own.

In the District Court at Bhopal. The Union of India sued Union Carbide Corporation in Suit No. 113 of 1986. On 17 December 1987 the District Judge made an interlocutory order directing the corporation to deposit Rs 350 crore as interim compensation.

In the High Court of Madhya Pradesh. On 4 April 1988, modifying the District Judge's order, the High Court granted interim compensation of Rs 250 crore. Both the Union of India and Union Carbide appealed.