---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Niloufer Bhagwat <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 3:36 PM Subject: [humanrights-movement:2633] A CAPSULED VERSION OF THE MAIN ISSUES OF THE GASSIFICATION OF INDIANCITIZENS BY UNION CARBIDE AN ALERT FOR THE CONTEMPLATED NUCLEAR LIABILITY BILLINFLUENCED BY CORPOATIONS NOT INTERESTED IN ADEQUATE SAFETY STANDARDS To: Admiral Bhagwat <[email protected]>, gajendra singh <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected]
Dear Colleagues , The written statement of Union Carbide filed before the District Court at Bhopal in the Civil Suit for damages at paragraph 35 admits that frequent accidents of exposure to lethal substances had occurred from 1981 to 1982 resulting in leakage of lethal substances at the Union Carbide Plant at Bhopal in which a worker died and others suffered grievous injuries . The 1982 " Operational Safety Survey " performed by three Union Carbide technicians from the USA found a number of " major concerns" at the BHOPAL PLANT OF UNION CARBIDE including : 1. Potentials for release of toxic material in the phosgene/MIC unit and storage areas , either due to equipment failure , operating problems , or maintenance problems. 2. Deficiencies in safety valve and instrument maintenance programmes etc...... What was not revealed were the cost cutting measures dictated by Union Carbide USA complied with without demur by Union Carbide India . The matter was raised in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly where the details of Mr. Khan's death after exposure to phosgene were raised and the Labour Minister gave a reply . An aspect which is significant is that Union Carbide ( USA ) FROM IN OR ABOUT 1979 desired to dispose of the Plant as its subsequent REVISED financial feasibility was in question . THIS IS THE CLUE AS TO WHY THE COST CUTTING MEASURES WHICH WERE HAZARDOUS FOR THE PUBLIC AND THE WORKERS AT THE PLANT WERE RESORTED TO . I have been repeatedly stressing that TNCs and Indian Companies are at all times concerned with their balance sheets , where as political propaganda in India continues to make out CEOs of COMPANIES AS PARAGONS OF VIRTUE AND REAL 'MAI BAAPS " PROJECTING THEM AS THE NEW ROYALTY OF INDIA A MYTH WHICH IS FOSTERED BY LEGAL CIRCLES WHICH REPRESENT COMPANIES . NO COUNTRY CAN ABANDON STRICT REGULATORY MEASURES AND NO FAULT LIABILITY COVERING THE COMPLETE COST OF LOSS OF LIVES AND CLEAN UP AND EVEN WINDING UP OF THE COMPANY IN SERIOUS CASES . SINCE THERE IS NO LIMIT ON PROFITS THERE CANNOT BE LIMITS ON DAMAGES TO BE IMPOSED .CORPORATE GOVERNANCE OF A COUNTRY IS HAZARDOUS AS POLICY PERSPECTIVES OF A SOCIETY ARE DIFFERENT FROM DECISIONS IN A BOARDROOM . ENRON IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE . LAWS HAVE MORE THAN ONE OBJECTIVE , AN IMPORTANT ONE IS DETERRENCE . Chief Justice Pathak 's five judge Bench comprising Justices R.S. Pathak , E.S.Venkatramiah , Ranganath Misra , M.N.Venkatchaliah and N.D.Ojha dictated the consent terms and quashed criminal liability completely as though it was deemed acquittal of concerned Union Carbide officials ( in the meanwhile Warren Anderson had jumped bail ) an unheard of concept and accepted 470 million after the Suit was rejected by the New York District Court on the specious plea of lack of Jurisdiction though Union Carbide had its headquarters in the USA ( this was done by the Court to limit the amount of damages payable to the citizens of a developing country where lives are cheap camouflaged as the doctrine of sovereignty of Indian Courts) and the suit was filed once again in India by the Union of India . A subsequent Bench of Chief Justice Sabyasachi Mukherji , Justice K.N.Singh , Justice S. Ranganathan and Justice A.M.Ahmadi held that quashing of criminal proceedings could not have been resorted in consent terms dictated by the Supreme Court at the instance of the Union of India and Union Carbide as such a settlement was not within the purview of the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster ( Processing of Claims ) Act 1985 . However the compensation amount of 470 million accepted by the Bench of Chief Justice Pathak was not reviewed . As stated earlier Union Carbide took advantage of the fact that the District Court at New York declined to hear the Suit of the Union of India on behalf to the Victims contending that though Union Carbide had its headquarters in the USA and most of its financial assets in the USA , the District Court at New York declined jurisdiction and the Suit was once again filed in India where the Union Carbide had insufficient assets ( a deliberate ploy ) to meet the claims made on behalf of the victims . As stated earlier by me Mr. Palkhiwalla was an expert witness for Union Carbide in the New York District Court stating on affidavit that the Court did not have jurisdiction . Similarly Ms Indira Jaisingh contended in articles and otherwise that the New York District Court did not have jurisdiction even though the assets of Union Carbide in India were insufficient to meet the claims . The Union of India under the Bhopal Gas Leak ( Processing of Claims ) Act 1985 had sought to take over the legal responsibility for pursuing the Claims of all affected citizens to consolidate all claims . Some Petitioners financed by NGO s were at cross purposes filing different petitions and suits not pursued consistently as a consequence the consent terms were dictated without hearing affected citizens on the claims and peremptorily the consent terms were dictated accepting 470 million by Chief Justice Pathak 's bench quashing all criminal proceedings on the specious plea that it was necessary to obtain urgent relief as Court proceedings would take an inordinately long time in India . When the criminal case was restored once again Union Carbide contested in the Supreme Court in a Special Leave Petition the charge of Culpable Homicide as defined by Section 299 read with Section 304 contending that the original FIR filed at Bhopal had registered a case interalia under Section 304 A causing death by a rash and negligent act while the CBI Prosecutor had successfully convinced the trial Judge and the Madhya Pradesh Court that the charges interalia of Culpable Homicide , causing grievous hurt were maintainable and should be framed . For culpable Homicide pre-meditated intent or knowledge that the accused is likely by such act to cause death is an essential ingredient .The Bench of Chief Justice Ahmadi and Justice Majumdar should have declined to interfere with the framing of charges by the trial court upheld by the Madhya Pradesh High Court . If the prosecution had produced adequate evidence of the series of fatal and serious accidents at the Bhopal Plant of Union Carbide between 1981 and 1982 and the cost cutting measures resorted to at the cost of the safety of the plant in view of the subsequent report on financial feasibility and the decisions hazarding the safe operation of the Plant with evidence of the death of a worker and injuries to others;then the charge of culpable homicide should not have been reduced to death caused by a rash and negligent act . However within the Indian political and legal system the Commpany and its Directors and Management are held as prima facie innocent no matter who dies and even when the economy of whole regions is devastated, example Enron .Presently the Indigenous people in Central India have to be cleared out from their villages to make way for mining TNCs in violation of UN Resolutions on Indigenous Peoples Rights and in violation of Constitutional protection to tribal land and habitat . With MOUs drawn up without consulting affected interests given no rights whatsoever . Justice Krishna Iyer has finally despaired of the legal and political system in its present form and has termed the legal system as Pre-Victorian ( I belong to the law movement, which he inspired until we discovered from our own experiences that the legal system was an extension of the political system despite some very brave Judges determined to do justice ) To-day as I see my colleagues politically assassinated or threatened and attacked for defending the economically and weaker sections against unjust charges ( Judge Tahilyani acquitted in the 26/11 case the client of Shahid Azmi who was killed for defending so called " Terrorists"who was in reality an innocent man ) when I see a doctor belonging to the famous Vellore tradition of Medicine treating the tribal among other people arrested by the Government of Chhatisgarh and denied bail for two years ,when I see innocent victims of pogroms and those killed in fake encounters and thousands in Mumbai , Gujarat without any relief despite being openly attacked and abused every day for the mere accident of belonging to religion ,an accident of birth ; when I see farmers committing suicide with their wives and children pauperised ; when I see workers reduced to contract labour despite despite toiling year after year ; when I see public health and nutrition denied to millions of children ; I conclude that what Justice Krishna Iyer has now written on 14th July 2010 in the Opinion page of Hindu is a verdict we can only ignore at grave peril to our present and future . THE MOST SERIOUS ACT OF UNION CARBIDE USA AND UNION CARBIDE INDIA WAS THAT THE ANTIDOTE TO THE EXPOSURE OF THE LETHAL GAS WAS NOT IDENTIFIED AN ISSUE WHICH THE LATE Mr.R.K,GARG ASSISTED BY ME RAISED IN THE SUPREME COURT RECORDED IN THE JUDGMENT OF THE BENCH HEADED BY CHIEF JUSTICE Sabyasachi Mukharji and recently once again raised by the courageous DR BINAYAK SEN THE HUMANE DOCTOR PAR EXCELLENCE , AN OUTSTANDING PATRIOT , WHO SAYS THAT THE UNION CARBIDE EVEN FAILED TO SPECIFY THAT THE ANTIDOTE SODIUM THIOSULPHATE THAT WOULD HAVE MADE A MAJOR DIFFERENCE IN TREATING VICTIMS DR PATNAIK STATES . FURTHER HE REITERATES WHAT WE STATED TO THE COURT THE UNUSUAL SECRECY IN REVEALING THE NATURE OF THE CHEMICAL AND THAT NONE OF THE ICMR STUDIES WAS CARRIED THROUGH TO COMPLETION . To conclude this is not the Democracy which Mahatma Gandhi envisaged and finally Justice Krishna Iyer as a former Judge and erstwhile Law Minister of a Left Front Government has pronounced his verdict, LONG OVERDUE . Niloufer Bhagwat -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en. -- You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole. -AMBEDKAR http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
