Centre gets control of Bhopal hospital
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Centre to take over the Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust established on the direction of the top court 12 years ago for treating the gas victims and accepted the resignation of former Chief Justice of India A.M. Ahamadi from the chairmanship of the trust.
The sudden turnaround in the government stand regarding taking over the management of BMHT came in the wake of the June 7 judgment of a Bhopal court awarding merely two years sentence to seven top officials of the Union Carbide India Ltd, including its MD Keshub Mahindra, for which the Central government and judiciary got much brickbats.
After attorney-general G.E. Vahanvati handed over Justice Ahamadi’s 2009 resignation letter seeking to be relieved from the chairmanship of the trust and AG’s submission that the government has decided to take it over, a bench headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia passed an order approving the proposal.
The bench having Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar as the other two judges, besides, the CJI also approved the Centre’s proposal to hand over the management of BMHT to the department of biotechnology and energy.
But the Centre earlier was “reluctant” to take over the hospital despite the apex court cajoling it time and again. Apparently the u-turn in the government stand came in the wake a lot of criticism of its various decisions related to the Bhopal gas disaster during past 26 years after the June 7 verdict. Though Justice Ahamadi himself had come for criticism for his 1996 judgment “diluting” the charges of “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” against the UCIL officials to “death caused with negligence” the bench recorded “appreciation” for his services.
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