SC issues notice to all accused in Bhopal case
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COMMENTS 
An apex court Bench has sought responses from all the accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy, on the curative petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation seeking a recall of the court’s 14-year-old judgment that had diluted the offence
The Supreme Court, on August 31, 2010, issued notices to all the accused in the Bhopal gas leak case on a petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking to restore against them the stringent charge of culpable homicide, which attracts a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail.
The CBI has sought reconsideration of the September 13, 1996, Supreme Court judgment that whittled down the charge to ‘causing death due to rash and negligent act’ against former Union Carbide Chairman Warren Anderson, head of the Bhopal unit of Union Carbide Keshub Mahindra, and six others.
Normally, the judges who delivered the main judgment form part of the Bench considering a curative petition filed under Article 142 of the Indian Constitution. But in the present case neither of the two judges who delivered the judgment in 1996 -- the then Chief Justice of India A M Ahmadi and Justice S C Sen -- will be part of the Bench as both have since retired.
The group of ministers (GoM) appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to file a curative petition in the case for restoration of charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against Anderson, Mahindra and six others.
On the night of December 3, 1984, over 20,000 people died when poisonous MIC gas leaked from the Bhopal unit of the American company Union Carbide. Thousands of others were injured; many became permanently disabled and have not recovered from the after-effects of the tragedy that struck the capital city of Madhya Pradesh 25 years ago.
The prime minister constituted a nine-member GoM headed by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Union Industries Minister Kamal Nath and others following huge public outcry when a Bhopal CJM court awarded maximum punishment of two years’ imprisonment to the eight accused, after holding them guilty of the offence of criminal negligence. All the accused except one, who has since died, were granted bail within minutes of their conviction and sentence.
Source: Press Trust of India, August 31, 2010
United News of India, August 30, 2010