NEW DELHI, July 21 (UPI) -- Many courts in India have posters on their premises that scream: "Justice delayed is justice denied." The irony is that India has one of the world's slowest judicial systems.
But for more than half a million victims of the Bhopal Union Carbide chemical tragedy, late is better late than never. It has taken them nearly 20 years to get fully compensated.
Millions of cases have been pending for decades due to the large number of litigations and limited number of courts. Many litigants die natural deaths before their cases are decided.
However, in the Union Carbide Corp. Bhopal case, India's Supreme Court Monday ordered the federal government to distribute money held in the bank to more than half a million victims of the 1984 chemical tragedy that left more than 3,500 people dead and thousands others crippled for life.
The court ordered $325 million to be paid to more than 566,000 survivors and dependents, who still had not received compensation 20 years after methyl isocyanate gas began leaking from a Union Carbide Corp. pesticide plant in India's central city of Bhopal the night of December 2, 1984.
Union Carbide, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co. in 1999, had provided $470 million as full and final compensation. However, legal delays, including identifying some of the victims, held up payment of the full amount.
After the initial relief was paid out, the Supreme Court directed the government to hold the balance of the money in India's central bank. That fund has earned interest and increased the value of the original deposit.
Campaigners for the gas victims say that more than 20,000 people have since died from illnesses related to inhaling the gas, and, of the about 520,000 people exposed to the poisonous gas, more than 100,000 remain chronically ill.
Many victims continue to suffer shortness of breath and a burning sensation in their chest and throats.
Despite the Indian rupee value of the compensation having risen significantly, the compensation ordered now amounts to a little more than $600 a person.
The campaigners are demanding higher compensation for the victims.
"We welcome the Supreme Court judgment because it recognized the fact that the magnitude of the Bhopal gas leak disaster was five times more than what was estimated at the time of the settlement in February 1989," said Indira Jaisingh, a lawyer for many victims.
According to the $470 million settlement between New Delhi and Union Carbide, there were only 105,000 victims to be compensated. However, the latest court order has recognized over 570,000 claimants who have to be paid compensation.
"Since the court has accepted that the scale of the tragedy was five times more than what the 1989 estimates held, therefore the amount of compensation should also be increased by five times," said Abdul Jabbar Khan, convener of gas victims' forum.
But some are content at whatever they are going to get.
"This is a great victory for the survivors of the gas tragedy who have waited too long for what is rightfully theirs," said Champa Devi Shukla, a victim.
She is one of the two recipients of 2004 Goldman Award for environment for their campaign to protect the rights of the 1984 disaster.
The polluted site of the abandoned Union Carbide factory is still said to be poisoning the groundwater of the area.
Indian government continues to pursue criminal charges against former Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson.
Newspaper reports Wednesday said that the United States has rejected India's request to extradite Anderson, who has retired and lives in New York.
An Indian Express report confirmed that the U.S. government had decided to reject India's request, an official spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi said: The decision came sometime in June and the Department of Justice which examined the particular case took the decision.
A Bhopal city court had ruled last year that Anderson should face charges of culpable homicide and had lashed out at India's federal investigation agency for diluting the charge against him to negligence not amounting to murder.
Meanwhile, newspapers have called upon the government to learn lessons from the 1984 tragedy on how to cope up with catastrophes.
"Looking back, it would appear that we more or less muddled through that whole process of compensation. The fact that the claimants ran into tens of hundreds could not have helped matters," Indian Express said in an editorial.
"All this should prompt us to re-examine our compensation regime and make it more transparent, accountable and efficient for those who have had to face such disasters. Take, for instance, the innovative ways in which the post-9/11 period was managed," the daily said, adding, "There were response hotlines and free legal services that victims could access. Those seeking to make claims were automatically entitled to preliminary expert guidance so that they could assess their options before seeking redress. Volunteer lawyers were assigned to each individual to assist with his or her particular needs."
"Bhopal's victims, in contrast, were left largely to their own devices in their hour of greatest need and despair. We need to ensure that the victims of future disasters and tragedies do not meet with their fate," the daily said.
