The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a curative petition filed by the Centre seeking additional compensation for victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy from the United States-based Union Carbide Corporation, Bar and Bench reported.

A Constitution bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said that the demand was not warranted and taking up the matter again would only “open a pandora’s box”. A curative petition is filed asking a court to re-examine its decision even after a review petition in the matter has been dismissed.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court also directed the Centre to use a part of the compensation – amounting to Rs 50.25 crore – lying with the Reserve Bank of India to clear the pending compensation claims, reported Live Law.

The curative petition had been filed in 2010 by the United Progressive Alliance government, seeking additional compensation of Rs 7,844 crore from Union Carbide Corporation for the victims of the industrial accident.

In December 1984, methyl isocyanate and other toxic gases leaked from the pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Limited, then located on the outskirts of Madhya Pradesh capital of Bhopal.

More than five lakh people were exposed to the toxic gases and at least 4,000 were killed in the following days. Thousands more died due to the effects of the gas leak in subsequent years. Government figures estimate that there have been 15,000 deaths as a result of the disaster over the years.

Survivors of the tragedy have increased rates of cancer and birth defects, and suffer from a compromised immune system. In April 2019, the International Labour Organization listed the Bhopal gas tragedy among the world’s major industrial accidents in the last century.

In its petition, the Centre had sought the re-examination of a 1989 judgement of the Supreme Court that had fixed the compensation at $470 million (Rs 750 crore). The Union government contended that the figure was based on incorrect assumptions of the number of deaths, injuries as well as losses, and did not take into account the subsequent environmental degradation.

The settlement was based on an earlier toll of 3,000 deaths and 70,000 injuries. However, the curative petition has put the death numbers at 5,295 and injuries at 5,27,894.

In Tuesday’s judgement, the Constitution bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Abhay S Oka, Vikram Nath and JK Maheshwari, said the previous settlement can be set aside only on the ground of fraud, and the Centre had made no such argument in its plea.

“We are unsatisfied with the Union of India for not furnishing any rationale for raking up this issue more than two decades after the incident,” the bench said in the judgement, according to Live Law.

On January 11, Justice Kaul had remarked that the court could not hear the curative petition like a suit. A suit is a civil dispute in which a litigant can seek to hold another person liable for wrongful harm.

Justice Oka had said that if the government felt that the victims of the gas tragedy were entitled to more compensation, it should pay the amount.

On October 11, the Centre told the court that it will pursue litigation seeking additional compensation from Union Carbide Corporation for the survivors of the tragedy.

The bench had noted that Union Carbide has questioned the maintainability of the petitions filed by non-governmental organisations seeking that they are heard in the case.

The company had questioned why the NGOs approached the court 19 years after the judgement.