Describing the Bhopal Gas tragedy as a glaring example where courts had to step in for protecting citizens since the laws were either silent or inadequate,the Supreme Court on Thursday issued a slew of measures to guarantee medical rehabilitation of the victims and directed the central and Madhya Pradesh governments to ensure expeditious steps. A Bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia further held that all the gas victims are entitled to greater extent of multi-dimensional healthcare,as their sufferings are in no way,directly or indirectly,attributable to them. Slamming the company responsible for the disaster,the Bench added: It was primarily and undoubtedly the negligence on the part of the Union Carbide Ltd that resulted in leakage of the MIC gas,causing irreversible damage to the health of not only the persons affected but even the children who were still to be born. The court requested the Madhya Pradesh High Court to pass directives on a day-to-day basis in the matter to ensure proper functioning of the Relief and Rehabilitation Programme,working of the expert bodies and utmost medical care and treatment to the gas victims. It directed the central and state governments to work in tandem to dispose of thousands of tonnes of toxic waste lying in and around the now defunct Union Carbide factory within six months. The Bench also asked the state and the Medical Council of India to not only ensure that the victims are properly treated at public hospitals as per the recommendations by the court-appointed monitoring panel,but also redress grievances of the complainants (who are treated at private hospitals) to ensure maintenance of due standards of treatment.
