Supreme Court rejects Centre's plea for enhanced compensation for victims of Bhopal Gas tragedy

Supreme Court rejects Centre's curative plea for enhanced compensation for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy from US-based firm Union Carbide Corporation, now owned by Dow Chemicals.

Further, a sum of Rs 50 crores with RBI shall be utilised by the Union of India to satisfy pending claims, Supreme Court says while dismissing Centres Centre's curative plea for enhanced compensation for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy.

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A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul pronounceD the verdict. 

The bench, also comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Abhay S Oka, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice JK Maheshwar, had on January 12 reserved its verdict on the Centre's curative plea.

The Bhopal gas catastrophe dubbed the world's worst industrial accident, killed thousands after poisonous gas spilt from the Union Carbide India Ltd pesticide facility on the night of December 2 and 3, 1984. The catastrophe unfolded in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, when a very harmful and poisonous gas, methyl isocyanate (MIC), escaped from Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) and killed 5,295 people, injured about 5,68,292 others, and killed cattle.