<\/p>\n
Source<\/span><\/b>– The post is based on the article \u201c<\/span>Upendra Baxi on SC ruling on Bhopal Gas tragedy curative petition: Where did the constitutional sympathy for the victims vanish?\u201d <\/span><\/b>published in \u201c<\/span>The Indian Express\u201d <\/span><\/b>on <\/span>22nd March 2023<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Syllabus: <\/span><\/b>GS2- Functioning of judiciary<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Relevance<\/span><\/b>– Judicial decisions on important matters<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n News <\/span><\/b>– Recently, the Constitution bench of SC disposed of the curative petition related to Bhopal gas tragedy case.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Language used by the SC<\/span><\/b>– The Court considered it an<\/span> \u201cincident\u201d<\/span><\/b>. As per SC, the case is declared as justly settled by the Court in the past because it amounts to six times more than the compensation for motor accidents.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is nothing when <\/span>Intergenerational impacts on victims<\/span><\/b> are taken into account.\u00a0 The original Indian suit was for three billion dollars. But a judicial settlement of $470 million is <\/span>described consistently as just<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Court\u2019s <\/span>frequent references to private parties<\/span><\/b> demote them. This is rarely used in <\/span>constitutional discourse<\/span><\/b> for petitioners who seek relief from injustice or tyranny.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Legal reasoning-<\/span><\/b> The Court has justified the 1989 Bhopal judicial settlement order because of <\/span>certain imperatives<\/span><\/b>. It invoked the enormous<\/span> suffering of the victim<\/span><\/b>s. The court said that, without a settlement, immediate funds would not have been available for the victims.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It also invoked the <\/span>inadequate assets of Union Carbide India Limited in India<\/span><\/b>. It said that mere sympathy for the sufferers does not enable us to devise a panacea.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Court stated that <\/span>providing closure to the case<\/span><\/b> was also an <\/span>important aspect<\/span><\/b>. It is more important in the context of Indian judiciary where delay is almost inevitable.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The argument of being ever too late to plead a fraud is contrary to <\/span>legislative and administrative principles<\/span><\/b>. The Court says the sovereign state of India is unable to \u201cfurnish any rationale for<\/span> raking up this issue<\/span><\/b> more than two decades after the incident\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But one needs to distinguish between mere <\/span>\u201craking up\u201d an issue and a genuine policy shift.<\/span><\/b> The Bhopal catastrophe was a<\/span> \u201crarest of rare\u201d<\/span><\/b> case deserving <\/span>curative judicial sympathy.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Court further said that reopening the settlement will open a <\/span>\u201cPandora\u2019s box\u201d to the detriment of the beneficiaries<\/span><\/b>. Courts can reopen the settlement amount on the grounds that a fraud has been practised in reaching it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The counsel for Union Carbide maintained that the Union of India will have to pay back the <\/span>entire amount of compensation with interest <\/span><\/b>and begin the suit all over again. But the court did not ask the Union government to pursue it. <\/span>Bhopal Act<\/span><\/b> has provisions for providing funds for the care and justice of Bhopal tragedy victims.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Neglecting the constitutional principles<\/span><\/b>– The principle of <\/span>constitutional sympathy<\/span><\/b> was not invoked. Rather, the <\/span>\u201csettled principles of law<\/span><\/b>\u201d was preferred. <\/span>Justice and fairness<\/span><\/b> cannot be achieved in the curative petition by mere reiteration of <\/span>\u201csettled principles of law\u201d<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The idea of<\/span> invocation of power to do complete justice<\/span><\/b> was not used by the court. The Court stated that <\/span>Article 142<\/span><\/b> would not be an appropriate course of action or a method to impose a greater liability on UCC.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Supreme Court should not have abandoned <\/span>all obligations of care and justice<\/span><\/b> owed to the victims of Bhopal. Our Constitution insists <\/span>not just on closure, but on just closure<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source– The post is based on the article \u201cUpendra Baxi on SC ruling on Bhopal Gas tragedy curative petition: Where did the constitutional sympathy for the victims vanish?\u201d published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d on 22nd March 2023.\u00a0 Syllabus: GS2- Functioning of judiciary\u00a0 Relevance– Judicial decisions on important matters\u00a0 News – Recently, the Constitution bench of… Continue reading On Bhopal Gas tragedy curative petition: Where did the constitutional sympathy for the victims vanish?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-233563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1703520642},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What are the issues with the court order on curative petition?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n