The 18 crucial amendments to the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill, 2010, introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday are based largely on the amendments recommendations of the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology chaired by Dr T. Subbarami Reddy.
The most contentious of these amendments turned out to be the introduction of “and” between Clause 17(A) and (B) without the concurrence of the committee which sought to dilute the liability of the supplier in case of an accident.
With the BJP and Left parties launching a combined onslaught against the use of “and”, the government introduced “intent”. The changed amendment then read sub-clauses 17-c and 17-b, making it incumbent on an operator to prove than an act of commission or omission (by a supplier) was done with “the intent to cause damage”.
But once again, BJP leaders pointed out that it was impossible to prove intent on the part of suppliers in case of a nuclear accident.
The government then dropped this contentious clause while tabling the bill in Parliament. The rephrased amendment now read “the nuclear incident has resulted as a consequence of an act of supplier or his employee, which includes supply of equipment or material with patent or latent defects or sub-standard services”. The other key amendments emphasised that the bill was applicable only to nuclear installation owned and controlled by the government and there would be no private operator of a nuclear installation.
The word “operator” for a nuclear installation applied to a person designated by the central government as per Section 3(a) of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962.
The liability was raised in different clauses which included the addition of Clause 7 which provided for the government assuming “full liability” for a nuclear installation not operated by it is this was necessary in public interest. This was aimed at taking insurance cover a nuclear installation.
The compensation cap was raised from `500 to `1,500 crores and the maximum liability of each incident was raised to 300 million Special Drawing Rights.
The compensation amount would be determined by an officer of not less than a rank of additional secretary or a judicial authority of similar rank. They also recommended the setting up of a Nuclear Damage Claims Commission as also that the period of time to claim compensation of any nuclear damage in case of personal injury be extended to 20 years.
The committee also recommended that the claim should be computed from the date on which the action for compensation first arose rather than from the date of notification of the nuclear incident.
Another important amendment was that the victims had a right to appeal to the high court and Supreme Court if they were not satisfied with the award given by the claims commissioner.