As the government law officers get down to examine the 1996 Supreme Court judgment on dilution of the charges in the Bhopal gas tragedy case to file the curative petition, it has emerged from the verdict itself that the plant had many technical deficiencies from the very beginning and the company had even decided to shut down and dismantle it just before the 1984 disaster.
Based on the report of a team of scientists constituted by the Union government to probe the technical aspects of the case, the Supreme Court in its judgement stated when the deal for setting up of the plant was finalised in 1973, though it was supposed to be “improved” version of UCC’s West Virginia factory, but the US company supplied machinery for the plant with many “deficient” safety aspects. The 1973 agreement “necessitated UCC supplying the design, know how and safety measures for the production, storage and use of MIC which ought to have been an improvement on the factory of UCG at West Virginia based on the experience gained there. Investigation has however disclosed that: The factory at Bhopal was deficient in many safety aspects,” says the apex court judgement.
Though UCIL after installation of the plant earned profit but due to various technical shortcomings it gradually started incurring losses, which for first 10 months of the tragic year 1984 was to the tune of Rs 5.03 crores, says the verdict, quoting from the report of the scientific team. “Due to this, UCC (East) based in Hong Kong directed UCIL vide letter dated October 26, 1984 that the factory at Bhopal should be closed down and sold to any available buyer,” the SC says.