JUDGMENT

RANGANATH MISRA, C.J.I. :- I entirely agree with my noble and learned Brother Venkatachaliah and hope and trust that the judgment he was produced is the epitaph on the litigation. 1 usually avoid multiple judgments but this seems to be a matter where something more than what is said in the main judgment perhaps should be said.

2. Early in the morning of December 3, 1984, one of the greatest industrial tragedies that history has recorded got clamped down on the otherwise quiet township of Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. The incident was large in magnitude 2,660 people died instantaneously and quite a good number of the inhabitants of the town suffered from several ailments. In some cases the reaction manifested contemporaneously and in others the effect was to manifest itself much later.

3. Union Carbide Corporation (UCC for short), a multi-national one, has diverse and extensive international operations in countries like India, Canada, West Asia, the Far East, African countries, Latin America and Europe. It has a sister concern known as Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL for short). In the early hours of the 3rd of December, 1984, there was a massive escape of lethal ga