Today, the Supreme Court of India dismissed the Petition of the Central Government seeking to claim additional compensation for victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. However, the Court directed that a sum of INR 50 crores lying with RBI ought to be utilized by the Union Government to satisfy pending claims if any. 

The Court also mentioned that settlement can be set aside only on the ground of fraud, but no grounds of fraud. A Bench comprising Justice S.K. Kaul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice A.S. Oka, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice J.K. Maheshwari noted that Central Government had itself failed to take out insurance policies as directed by the Supreme Court. 

"The Union has filed the curative petition seeking to reopen the settlement. The responsibility was placed on the Union of India, being a welfare state, to make good the deficiency( in the compensation) and to take out the relevant insurance policy. Surprisingly, we are informed that no such insurance policy was taken out. This is gross negligence on the part of Union and in breach of the judgment of this Court. The Union cannot be negligent on this aspect and then seek prayer from this Court to fix such responsibility on the UCC."

We are unsatisfied with the Union of India for not furnishing any rationale for raking up this issue more than two decades after the incident". The Court held that the Union's plea for top-up compensation has no basis in legal principle. "Either a settlement is valid, or it has to be set aside on the ground that it has been vitiated on the ground of fraud. No such fraud has been pleaded by the Union of India", the bench noted.

Union's case is based on the number of victims and injuries which were not envisaged at the time when the settlement was effected, Court Said.

The Bench also raised questions regarding the scope of curative petitions and expressed concern that it appears that the Union Government is seeking to reopen or to add on to a settlement that was reached long back, in 1989.

Back in December 2010, the Union Government filed a curative petition arguing that the earlier settlement was based on incorrect assumptions about the number of deaths, injuries and losses, and has not taken into account the subsequent environmental degradation.

As per the plea, the earlier figures for death were 3000 and for injury were 70,000, whereas the actual figures for death are 5295 and for injury, it is 5,27,894.

Last year, in September, When the matter came up for hearing for the first time it had asked the Solicitor General of India, Mr Tushar Mehta to seek instructions from the Centre regarding its present stand on the curative petition filed by it more than a decade ago. Later in October, the Central Government was keen to pursue the curative petition.

The Bench permitted the Union Government to represent the claims of persons who have suffered the Bhopal gas leak. So far as the other NGOs were concerned, the Bench refused to grant them the liberty to file pleadings but did not foreclose their right to be heard.