Plea to stop SS Norway, Centre gets SC notice

The Supreme Court today issued a notice to the Central Government on an application seeking restraint on the entry of the ship SS Norway to India.

The Supreme Court today issued a notice to the Central Government on an application seeking restraint on the entry of the ship SS Norway to India. Judges Arijit Pasayat and Markandey Katju also directed the committee of technical experts to look into the application and submit their report before July. The ship’s entry into Indian waters will depend on the recommendations made by the committee.

Advocate Sanjay Parikh had written to the Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam on May 9 following media reports on the ship’s destination asking him to take necessary action. Today, an additional application was filed by Gopal Krishna, an environmental activist.

When Le Clemenceau was sailing to India this January, the Supreme Court had constituted a committee to look into all aspects of ship-breaking, including upgrading of Alang shipyard. The 10-member committee is headed by Secretary (Environment and Forests) and has three retired naval officers among other experts. This technical committee is in addition to the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC), which is already monitoring various hazardous wastes.

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SS Norway, now christened Blue Lady, left Port Klang in Malaysia last week on way to Alang. Greenpeace and other groups say the 46,000-tonne ship contains over 900 tonnes of asbestos. They argue that Alang lacks modern technology to safely handle such waste like asbestos, putting the health of workers at risk.

Today’s application asks for a ban on the entry of the ship under Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling Rules 1989).

The court in 1997 had asked a high-powered committee under M G K Menon to examine the hazardous waste matter in depth. Based on its report, the court then gave various directions on ship-breaking in a judgment in 2003. The directions include decontamination of the ship, verification of the inventory and participation of the country in the negotiations of the Basel Convention. The SCMC was constituted to monitor the directions of the Supreme Court.

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