SC judge offers to recuse from hearing Centre's plea seeking additional fund over Bhopal Gas tragedy

A Supreme Court judge on Tuesday offered to recuse himself from hearing the Central government's curative plea seeking additional funds of Rs 7,844 crore from successor firms of US-based Union Carbide Corporation for compensation to the victims of 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy.

Justice S Ravindra Bhat, who was part of a five-judge constitution bench hearing the petition, offered to recuse himself from hearing the matter as he had appeared as a counsel for one of the parties in the matter earlier.

The five-judge bench comprising of justices Arun Mishra, Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, MR Shah, and S Ravindra Bhat adjourned the matter for tomorrow as a decision will be taken on the recusal later today by the Chief Justice of India S A Bobde.

The petition seeks additional compensation of Rs 7,413 crores from the successor firms of Union Carbide Corporation, now owned by Dow Chemicals, and a re-examination of the apex court's February 14, 1989 judgment which had fixed compensation at USD 470 million.

The central government reportedly stated before the Supreme Court that the earlier settlement was based on incorrect assumptions on the number of deaths, injuries, and losses.

The Bhopal gas tragedy, touted as the world's worst industrial disaster, had claimed the lives of several thousand people after a deadly gas leaked from the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984.