Carbide can\'t be asked to pay more compensation: Fali Nariman

NEW DELHI: Legal eagle Fali Nariman has given a thumb\'s down to the Centre\'s plan to reopen the $470 million compensation settlement in the Bhopal gas leak case and to restore the graver charges against the accused, saying the moves were doomed as they were in violation of the law. He also said that chances of ex-Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson\'s extradition were grim.



Nariman, in a television interview, said \"a settlement\" is final and cannot be reopened. He added if the government wanted to increase the compensation, it will have to bear the cost as the Supreme Court was not likely to increase the compensation paid by Union Carbide.



\"Because a settlement is a settlement, and unless there is some fraud involved, it\'s never reopened,\" the noted lawyer said.



The senior lawyer added that the \"settlement\" was arrived at to skirt a legal trial over liability which would have taken a long time and added to the woes of the victims. He said the court had ordered that government will have to pay up the extra money if the quantum of settlement was found insufficient.



Nariman, however, accepted that the compensation for \"hardcore\" victims had proved to be \"inadequate and unjust\". He said the compensation per se was not inadequate but the problem arose with the criteria of giving money to people living in certain areas than what they had suffered.



Nariman, who appeared for Union Carbide in the civil liability case, said the move now to prosecute the accused, including Keshub Mahindra, under a graver charge like culpable homicide goes against Section 300 of CrPC which says a person cannot be prosecuted for the same offence or another offence based on the same facts.



Asked if he regretted taking up the brief for Union Carbide, Nariman said, \"If I had to live my life all over again, as a lawyer, and the brief came to me and I had the foreknowledge of everything that later came in, I would certainly not have accepted the civil liability case which I did.\"



The lawyer, who is known for his stand on human rights issues, accepted that his taking up the brief for Union Carbide let the company cash in on his credentials. \"Yes, there is merit (in that criticism),\" he said.



The Union cabinet last week asked the government to seek the attorney general\'s opinion if a curative petition can be filed in the Supreme Court for reconsideration of the $470 million compensation settlement. It also said that the government would file a curative petition to restore the graver charges against the accused which were diluted in 1996.



The steps, suggested by the Group of Ministers looking into the Bhopal case, came after the trial court verdict on June 7 kicked off a controversy for being too lenient on the accused.
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