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Supreme Court to examine validity of n-damage
act
Friday March 16, 2012 08:13:12 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi: The
Supreme Court Friday said it would examine the constitutional
validity of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act which pegs
the maximum liability on a supplier and operator of a nuclear
power plant in case of an accident at Rs.15,000 crore ($2.9
billion).
An apex court bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice A.K.
Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar issued notice to the central
government on a plea by NGO Common Cause, challenging the
provisions of the act.
The court declined to entertain other prayers of the petitioner
saying that it was a scientific issue where there were differing
opinions and court could not adjudicate on them.
"We are not experts to decide the issues which are essentially
scientific and there are divergent opinions," the court told the
NGO's counsel Prashant Bhushan.
The court said if the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission
said that nuclear power plants were safe, then "are we going to
say it is untrue".
Bhushan said the operator of a nuclear power plant had to spend
far more money on making it secure than on meeting liabilities in
the event of an accident.
"If an operator knows that his liability was limited to Rs.1,500
crore then why would he spend huge money to strengthen the safety
of the nuclear power plant," he said.
Not only was the liability limited to Rs.1,500 crore, the
government had framed rules that further reduced the liability of
the supplier of the nuclear plant to five years from the
commission of the power plant, he said.
Bhushan sought the court's intervention for setting up a
regulatory board independent of the government. The court told him
that parliament was already seized of a bill providing for such a
regulatory mechanism.
The court told Bhushan that his argument on regulatory boards was
based on assumption. "We understand your concerns. Under the
constitution, the government too has a responsibility," the court
told Bhushan.
He said that the government concealed the serious deficiencies in
the safety of the existing nuclear plants that surfaced in three
safety reviews.
"I want to know that as a citizen of this country, do I have a
right to be assured of the safety of my life," Bhushan said.
Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati said that the petitioner was going
on the basis that every thing being done by the government was
wrong and malafide.
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