The Bhopal gas leak disaster, which killed thousands and rendered hundreds of thousands seriously infirm and with genetic defects in yet-to-be-born, has clearly brought to the fore the need to have clear-cut laws relating to class action suits, which originated in the US and are being followed in some other countries, too. There is enough to draw from the global experience on how to craft our own laws relating to industrial disasters like Bhopal. The Supreme Court, too, has from time to time laid down guidelines for fixing liabilities of a company engaged in an inherently dangerous activity and for compensating those affected by an accident. It has even ordered closure of 168 hazardous industries in Delhi and shifting them out.
The stark contrast is also evident in the two recent cases?the Mayapuri Cobalt-60 contamination incident that rocked Delhi a couple of months back and a massive ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, now considered to be the largest offshore spill in the US history. Experts fear that the oil spill will result in an environmental disaster. With an extensive impact on marine and wildlife habitats, it has already affected the fishing and tourism industries. The US government has named energy giant BP as the responsible party in the incident and held it accountable for all clean-up costs.
Compare the Bhopal disaster to the compensation being demanded for the oil spill disaster. US President Barack Obama has asked BP to pay a fine of $4,300 per barrel of spilled oil for the environmental disaster, which killed 11 people. The final compensation may run into billions of dollars. If a company is found guilty of civil or criminal offences, there are yet more potential fines under various laws. Under the current law, an oil well?s owner is responsible for footing the bill for the entire cost of clean-up in the event of a disaster besides paying damages to the affected people.
Clean-up costs are currently running at about $6 million a day. And with the government also chipping in to help in the clean-up process, it also includes reimbursing any costs that the Coast Guard or Navy incur above their normal operating expenses. So far about 51,000 claims have been filed against BP and approximately $1.6 billion has been spent by the oil company. Various class action suits have been filed against the energy major on behalf of the residents of the Florida coast, Louisiana and Alabama. They are suing the London-based BP Plc, which holds the lease to the offshore well; Swiss-based Transocean Ltd, owner of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform that exploded in flames on April 20 and collapsed two days later; Halliburton Energy Services Inc, which was engaged in cementing operations of the well and well cap; and Cameron International Corp, which supplied the rig?s blow-out prevention equipment that failed. The grounds being taken are of negligence, strict liability for abnormally dangerous activity, strict products liability for manufacturing defects and violations of the Oil Pollution Act.
Legal experts feel that India doesn?t have any law on such man-made disasters. ?The government and political parties should learn lessons from the Bhopal gas tragedy and make sure that India has perfect laws in place. The US has specific laws to deal with such situations. In India, we don?t have the required legislations except the Indian Penal Code (IPC). But if people are indicted under it, they manage to get scot-free,? says Supreme Court advocate, Lalit Bhasin. He puts the entire blame for the Bhopal disaster on the government, improper legislation and the courts, which have ?lax views?. But he finds no fault with the trial court?s June 7 Bhopal verdict. Besides, he adds, the people who are agitating now against the verdict kept silent when the Supreme Court diluted the provisions in 1986 by converting the charges from Section 304-II (culpable homicide amounting to murder) to Section 304A (death caused by a rash and negligent act). ?They should have made such hue and cry then,? Bhasin added.
Though India does not have special laws to deal with such disasters, the law set out in IPC may have had sent message of some deterrence, if it had been applied in the Bhopal case. ?IPC- 304-II states,? adds another advocate, MR Shamshad, ??if the act is done which is likely to cause death, but without any intention to cause death?.? ?And due to that likelihood a person dies, the accused can be punished with imprisonment which may extend to 10 years,? he elaborates.
Yet India doesn?t seem to have learnt anything. The Mayapuri incident should have been an eye-opener. But the presence of loose hazardous radioactive Cobalt-60 that can increase cancer risk in a densely populated area doesn?t seem to have warned authorities.
India is now mulling a law to allow class action suits. Law minister Veerappa Moily recently proposed a radical law that would bind corporate bodies like Union Carbide with vicarious liability both under criminal and civil laws for acts of negligence and deficient actions, leading to loss of human lives and allowing class action suits to be brought against them. ?We do not want charity from the courts and so want to empower the victims to bring in class action suits to claim adequate damages against corporate bodies held responsible for such catastrophes,? the law minister said.
To be concluded tomorrow