Why no summons to Dow Chemicals, court asks Centre

Bhopal: A local court here on Wednesday asked the Centre to explain as to why summons issued by it were not served to US-based Dow Chemical in a case related to the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, which had left over 15,000 people dead and around one lakh others maimed.

The court of additional judicial magistrate here directed the under secretary, IS-II division, ministry of home affairs, to appear before it on January 20, 2020, to explain why it has not been able to serve the summons to Dow Chemical in the case.

The court’s directive came in the wake of the CBI presenting its status report that despite reminders issued by the MHA to US department of justice, the summons has not been served and a service report is still awaited.

The court has earlier issued summons to Dow Chemical to appear before it in connection with the case.

This was the sixth summons issued by the Bhopal court to Dow Chemical.

Leakage of methyl isocyanate in a plant in Union Carbide here in the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, had led to killing of over 15,000 people and maiming of over one lakh others.

The survivors of Bhopal gas tragedy have waged a battle for three-and-a-half decades to get due compensation from Union Carbide and fix criminal accountability on the company for the incident, billed as world’s worst industrial disaster. Their hope of getting due compensation suffered a setback when Dow Chemical took over Union Carbide.

They, however, have been demanding that Dow Chemical should be asked to pay compensations to the survivors.