Bhopal gas case: Government to abide by SC decision

New Delhi, May 11: The Government today said it will "abide" by the decision of the Supreme Court which dismissed CBI's curative petition against an earlier apex court judgement that diluted charges against the accused in the Bhopal gas disaster case.

"We will go by the decision of the Supreme Court. After this matter came up, the GoM in its due wisdom decided to go for the curative petition. After obtaining the opinion from the learned Attorney General of India, we had filed the curative petition and the Supreme Court in its wisdom has dismissed it. We will abide by the decision," Law Minister Veerappa Moily told reporters.

Asked about the compensation component as well as punishment to the accused, the Minister said he has to go through the judgement and pointed out that there are other petitions also which are yet to be disposed.

He, however, made it clear that the compensation component was not linked with the curative petition and was a separate issue.

He said compensation issue was still open. "We have given more compensation. We have released more money from Government of India, we came to their rescue," he said.

The CBI and the Madhya Pradesh government filed the curative petitions after a public outcry over what was considered as a mild punishment for a tragedy that claimed over 15,000 lives in December 1984 and had left several thousands maimed by the leakage of deadly Methyl Isocyanate gas.

PTI