India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a government appeal to reinstate harsher charges against seven men convicted of negligence in the 1984 Bhopal gas leak that killed thousands of people.
The government had petitioned to try the men on charges of culpable homicide, which carries a jail sentence of 10 years. But a five-judge bench of the court refused the appeal, saying the government had not given sufficient reason to build a case of culpable homicide.
The judges also questioned why the government waited 14 years to seek stronger charges against the former managers at the now-defunct Union Carbide Company.
Last year, the court sentenced the defendants to two years in prison and a fine of about $2,200. The ruling triggered public outrage.
Bhopal victims and activists expressed deep disappointment with the verdict. They said the seven men got away with light sentences because a 1996 court ruling reduced the charges against them to the relatively minor one of death by negligence.
The activists and campaigners have promised to carry on their fight. The government said it is doing its best to see that justice is done and filed a petition in the Supreme Court to seek higher compensation for the victims from Dow Chemical Company, which bought Union Carbide in 2001.
Under the original compensation package brokered in 1989, Union Carbide agreed to pay the Indian government $470 million in damages.
The Indian government says 3,500 people were killed when toxic gases leaked from Union Carbide’s pesticide plant in Madhya Pradesh’s state capital of Bhopal. Activists put the death toll at more than 20,000, with tens of thousands more struggling with the consequences of what is widely called the world’s worst industrial disaster.
