A five-judge Special Bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia will pronounce its judgment later on the petition seeking recall of the apex court order passed in 1996 directing trial of the accused only under the lighter provision of causing death by negligent act, entailing a maximum two-year jail term.
The curative petition was filed in the apex court after a Bhopal court’s verdict awarding two years’ sentence to Mahindra and six others last year sparked a nationwide outcry.
“It has caused manifest irremediable injustice. A horrendous crime was committed and the maximum punishment (two years) capable of being imposed under Section 304 A (causing death by negligent act) are grossly disproportionate to each other,” Attorney-General G E Vahanvati had submitted.
As many as 15,000 people were killed and lakhs others contracted dreaded diseases after the leak of the poisonous methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas at Union Carbide's plant at Bhopal .
Published 27 April 2011, 17:24 IST