New Delhi:
The Supreme Court has rejected a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea asking for retrial in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy case.
"No satisfactory explanation has been given by the CBI and Madhya Pradesh government on filing a curative petition after a lapse of 14 years," the court observed while rejecting the plea.
"The September 1996 judgement and order was never a fetter for the CBI or Madhya Pradesh government to seek enhancement of charges," it added.
The CBI had sought a review of the Supreme Court judgement of 1996 that diluted charges against the accused from culpable homicide not amounting to murder to criminal negligence.
This led to lighter punishment for all the accused on June 7, 2010, when a Bhopal court had sentenced seven former Carbide executives, including former Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) Chairman Keshub Mahindra, to two years in jail. They were granted bail immediately.
(Forum: Has India failed victims of the Bhopal tragedy?)The verdict had sparked nationwide outrage, leading to the government setting up a group of ministers and the filing of a curative petition against the lighter punishment for those responsible for the gas tragedy.
(Watch: The day Bhopal was denied justice)The Supreme Court's dismissal of the CBI plea means that the accused will be let off with only a two-year sentence.
"We will go by the Supreme Court decision. The Group of Minister had taken the decision to go for a curative petition. It was based on the advice of the Attorney General. We cannot pass value judgment on the decision," said Law Minister Veerappa Moily.
(Watch)But activists say they are "very disappointed" with the Supreme Court decision. "We are not begging for justice. We are demanding it. It is our constitutional right," said the Convenor of Bhopal Gas Victims' Association, Jai Prakash.
In its plea, the CBI had sought restoration of the more stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder instead of death caused due to negligence against the accused in world's worst industrial disaster - close to 15,000 people have died since 1984, when a gas leak at the Carbide plant poisoned the Bhopal air on a December night.
Asking the court to reconsider its ruling, the CBI had said, "The men behind one of the world's biggest industrial catastrophes should not walk away with a minimal punishment of two years despite ample evidence to show the commission of an offence of homicide."
The Madhya Pradesh government had also moved the apex court, endorsing the CBI plea for review of the September 1996 judgement.
A five-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice SH Kapadia heard the case on a day-to-day basis.
Besides Mahindra, Vijay Gokhale, the then Managing Director of UCIL, Kishore Kamdar, then Vice President, J N Mukund, then Works Manager, S P Choudhary, then Production Manager, K V Shetty, then Plant Superintendent and S I Quereshi, then Production Assistant were convicted and sentenced to two years' jail term by the trial court in Bhopal in June last year.