nuclear-news

Legal challenge to India’s nuclear liability law

 “The Act channels all the liability to the nuclear operator [now the government itself], and the victims are not allowed to sue companies supplying reactors and other materials.” 

the Act was passed because the U.S., France and Russia, with which India had signed nuclear deals, pressured the government to buy expensive reactors from their suppliers.

Supreme Court to examine constitutional validity of nuclear civil liability law  THE HINDU, 17 March 12, J. VENKATESAN The Supreme Court will examine the constitutional validity of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, which limits the liability of an operator in the event of a nuclear disaster to Rs. 1,500 crore.

A Bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justices A.K. Patnaik and
Swatanter Kumar on Friday issued notice to the Centre on a writ
petition filed jointly by Common Cause; the Centre for Public Interest
Litigation; former bureaucrats, including T.S.R. Subramanian; the
former Chief Election Commissioner, N. Gopalaswami; and university
professors, challenging the vires of the Act, and seeking a
re-assessment of the safety of all nuclear facilities and a
comprehensive long-term cost-benefit analysis of the nuclear plants.

Counsel Prashant Bhushan argued that though three safety audits of
nuclear plants had highlighted a number of alarming issues, the
government had done nothing for the past 17 years. He wanted the court
to order the setting up of an independent regulatory body…..

The petitioners said: “The Act channels all the liability to the
nuclear operator [now the government itself], and the victims are not
allowed to sue companies supplying reactors and other materials. The
Act, under Section 6, also limits the liability of the operator to Rs.
1,500 crore, which is quite low, and states that the remaining damages
may be made good by the government at the cost of the exchequer. The
Act also excludes the liability of the operators in certain
circumstances.”

The petitioners said the Act was passed because the U.S., France and
Russia, with which India had signed nuclear deals, pressured the
government to buy expensive reactors from their suppliers. Thus, the
Act, by excluding the supplier’s liability, violated the principle of
‘polluter pays.’…
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3003515.ece

March 17, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, Legal