( 1. ) INTRODUCTORY the defendant-Union Carbide Corporation has filed the present revision under Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure against the order dated 17-12-1987 passed by the District Judge, Bhopal in Regular Civil Suit No. 1113 of 1986 whereby in a claim for damages based on tort made by the plaintiff-Union of india under the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act, 1985 on behalf of all the claimants the District Judge directed the defendant-Union Carbide corporation to deposit within two months a sum of three thousand five hundred million rupees by way of interim payment to be disbursed by the Commissioner appointed under the Act for granting substantive relief to the victims of the disaster.

( 2. ) MOST TRAGIC INDUSTRIAL DISASTER IN PEACE TIME 2. 01. 01. On the night intervening 2nd and 3rd of December 1984 there occurred at Bhopal in the State of Madhya Pradesh in India the worst and the most tragic industrial disaster known to mankind. There was a massive escape of a highly noxious and abnormally dangerous gas called Methyl Isocyanate (hereinafter called mic)from the chemical plant of an enterprise engaged in manufacturing MIC based agricultural pesticides. The gas had been manufactured in the MIC unit of the chemical plant and had been stored in one of the storage tanks of the said unit for the manufacture of SEVIN carbryl. After its escape from the plant, the gas spread over a large inhabited area of Bhopal city and adjoining countryside and caused unprecedented damage to life and property. As per the figures supplied by the plaintiff-Union of India in the amended plaint, a total number of about 2660 persons suffered agonising and excruciating deaths as a result of the disaster. Thousands of persons sustained serious and permanent injuries including acute respiratory distress syndrome, ocular and gastro-intestinal injuries and pain, suffering and mental distress. Total number of persons who sustained serious injuries was between 30,000 and 40,000. In addition, a large number of animal population including cattle became victims of the disaster. So also, there was extensive damage to the natural environs of the city and the adjecent countryside. The Central Government, the State government of Madhya Pradesh and their various instrumentalities had to incur huge expenditure for containing the disaster and mitigating or otherwise coping with the effects. As per the amended plaint, the total number of claims received by the State government in respect of the disaster was 5,36,770. It was estimated that the approximate value of the total claim (including death and personal injury cases) would exceed Rs. 3,900 crores (U. S. 3 billion dollars) if the case was tried to judgment through all the stages.

( 3. ) EVENTS INTERVENING DISASTER AND BHOPAL SUIT.

Sojourn to U. S. Courts in search of Relief. 3. 01. 01. The suit from which the present revision arises was filed by the plaintiff-Union of India in the Bhopal Court on 5-9-1986. Union Carbide Corporation (hereinafter called ucc) is the sole defendant in the suit. Before taking note of the events that led the District Judge, Bhopal to make the impugned order of interim payment on 17-12-1987 it may be relevant to note as to what happened during the period 2/3-12-1984 and 5-9-1986 with a view to have a complete factual background of the Bhopal suit In the months of December 1984 and January 1985 the American lawyers in the United States filed 145 separate complaints for damages on behalf of some of the Indian victims in different Federal Courts in the U. S. A. These individual complaints were joined and assigned by the southern district of New York by order dated 6-2-1985. The individual Federal Court complaints were superseded by consolidated complaint filed on 28-6-1985. Enactment of Bhopal Act.

3. 02. 01. In March 1985, the Indian Parliament enacted the Bhopal Gas Lea disaster (Processing of Claims) Act, 1985 (hereinafter called the bhopal Act ). T