It’s a very general notion that law of torts work on fault based liability means whenever there is a wrongful act or omission, liability would be there. But what about the no fault liability? In this article, I’ll be dealing with the major judgments explaining what a no- fault liability is and how it helps the plaintiff or the victims.
What is Bhopal gas leak
It was midnight of 3-4 December, 1984 when nearly 3000 thousand lost their lives just due to a gas leak called methyl Isocyanate which mixed with air causing breathing problems to the people who inhaled it. It affected plant and animal species as well. These symptoms and injuries continued to persist even after 30 years of this incident. The leak was happened because of negligence on the part of company as no proper maintenance was given to the plant.
LEGALITIES
Many people suffered due to this gas leak so, they moved to court filing their petitions against Union Carbide Corporation. As a result, Union of India taking into consideration all the complaints passed an ordinance and filed a petition in Bhopal district court and in US district court as well.
Image credit: istock
The US court directed the Union of India to approach India only for convenience. Bhopal court ordered Union Carbide Corporation to pay 3.3 Billion dollars. Then Union Carbide Corporation moved to the High Court to reduce the amount. As a result, the amount was reduced but the conflict wasn’t solved yet.
So, the parties decided to approach SC who evolved the concept of no-fault liability. SC ordered the Union Carbide Corporation to pay 470 million by 31st march, 1989.
IS NO FAULT LIABILITY DIFFERENT FROM STRICT LIABILITY?
No fault liability is also known as “absolute liability”, evolved in 1989 with 100% liability.
“It is a liability when the defendant helds liable and he doesn’t have any defenses as compared to the strict liability.”
In absolute liability, a person holds liable whether he has any intention to commit the crime or not. Even an act of god and the plaintiff’s own fault can’t save him. Absolute liability is just a modified version of strict liability.
Government introduced absolute liability because defendants used to take advantage of defenses available
CONCLUSION
The government has introduced many new laws after the bhopal gas leak case. But there are still the effects of this tragedy in the lives of people. They have breathing problems still going on from one generation to another.