While asking the three companies to pay Rs 100 crore as environmental compensation (EC) to the Ministry of Shipping, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar also ordered Gujarat-based Adani Enterprises Ltd to pay Rs five crore as EC for dumping in the seabed 60054 MT coal, being carried by the ship M V RAK, and polluting the marine environment.
It also held the respondents to be defaulting entities which had adopted the "most careless and reckless attitude" in protecting the marine environment.
"We are of the considered view that determined damages of Rs 100 crore should be paid by and recovered from respondents number 5, 7 and 11, jointly and severally while respondent number 6 is held liable to pay Rs 5 crore as environmental compensation for dumping of the cargo in the sea and then failing to take any precautionary or preventive measures.
Also Read
The tribunal constituted a committee to look into various aspects, including to study and report to it within a month on whether removal of the ship wreck and cargo from its present location should be directed as per global conventions and in the interest of marine environment.
The vessel was owned by Delta Shipping Marine Services SA
while Delta Navigation WLL and Delta Group International were responsible for its voyage.
The ship was also carrying more than 60,000 metric tonnes of coal for Adani Enterprises Ltd thermal power plant in Gujarat besides containing 290 tonnes of fuel oil and 50 tonnes of diesel.
The bench said it was "a clear case where negligence is attributable to the four firms" and added that it was not a case of sinking of a ship by "accident simpliciter".
"The ship had developed mechanical and technical snags at Colombo and Singapore and the Master of the ship had asked for help there during its onward journey. There is nothing on record to show that ship owner and other respondents provided timely assistance to the Master of the ship," it said.
It said the ship and its cargo should be removed by the four companies or they shall get it removed within six months from the date of submission of report of the committee, consituted by it, before the tribunal.
A year before this oil spill off the Mumbai coast, another such accident had occured in the Gulf of Mexico when an oil rig 'Deepwater Horizon' had exploded, leading to sea- floor oil gushing out for 87 days till it was capped. Eleven people had gone missing in what is considered to be the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.
In July 2015, after a long legal battle, BP, formerly known as British Petroleum which owned the rig, agreed to pay USD 18.7 billion in fines, the largest corporate settlement in US history so far.