The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to explain why it is yet to disburse Rs 1,360 crore to the Bhopal gas victims out of the $470 million (Rs 2,350 crore) it received as compensation, as alleged in a writ petition by a group of sufferers.
Around two decades ago, a gas leak at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal killed more than 4,000 people.
After protracted litigation, a settlement was arrived at in the Supreme Court whereby Union Carbide agreed to pay $470 million in compensation.
However, 35 victims have alleged that a part of the amount is yet to be distributed. They have asked for its immediate disbursement, with interest to compensate for the delay.
Claims tribunals had been set up under the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act, 1985. Welfare commissioners received a million applications till March 2002.
Most of these have been processed, and around half of them addressed. The total amount disbursed is Rs 1,151 crore, and the balance available with the central government stands at Rs 1,360 crore.
The petitioners wanted the court to order the government to distribute this remaining amount with interest. The apex court Bench, comprising Justice Shivraj Patil and Justice Arijit Pasayat, will take up the petition after three weeks.
Petitioners argued that retention of the remaining compensation amount by the central government, along with the denial of payment of interest on the main compensation amount, was arbitrirary, discriminatory and illegal.
The amounts granted to individual victims after long years of struggle themselves were meagre. The delay and denial of interest make it worse and the inactivity on the part of the central government was violative of the Fundamental Rights.
