NEW DELHI, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- India's Supreme Court has agreed to re-examine the lenient sentences given to top managers for a gas explosion at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in 1984.
The blast at the Bhopal plant killed more than 8,000 people and left thousands of others with long-term health problems, the Financial Times reported.
The court's announcement comes one day after the upper house of India's parliament approved a controversial nuclear liability law that was heavily influenced by memories of the Bhopal disaster.
Re-examining the sentences allows the top managers to be tried under a more stringent law, culpable homicide, than the negligence they were originally convicted of, the Hindustan Times reported.
Instead of the two-year sentences they received, the managers face up to 10 years in jail.
The court's decision came on an appeal filed by India's Central Bureau of Investigation.
