The Bhopal verdict: The long wait for "justice"
source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2010/06/bhopal_verdict?source=features_box_main
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OVER a quarter of a century after a deadly methyl isocyanate gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal killed thousands of people, eight men (one of whom is now dead) have been convicted of causing “death by negligence”. The district court in Bhopal sentenced them to two years in prison and imposed fines. The accused were immediately released on Rs 25,000 ($530) personal bail bonds. They include Keshub Mahindra (current chairman of India's big tractor maker Mahindra & Mahindra), who was formerly chairman of Union Carbide’s Indian subsidiary.
The wheels of justice always turn slowly in India’s courts, which have a backlog of more than 20m cases. One judge recently suggested that it would take 320 years to clear it. But they were particularly ponderous in this case. After the accident India’s government concentrated on getting compensation from Union Carbide. A criminal case only began in 1987, when India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), charged 12 people with "culpable homicide not amounting to murder".
http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2010/06/bhopal_verdict?source=features_b...
The wheels of justice always turn slowly in India’s courts, which have a backlog of more than 20m cases. One judge recently suggested that it would take 320 years to clear it. But they were particularly ponderous in this case. After the accident India’s government concentrated on getting compensation from Union Carbide. A criminal case only began in 1987, when India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), charged 12 people with "culpable homicide not amounting to murder".
http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2010/06/bhopal_verdict?source=features_b...
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