- (1.) Writ Petition No. 12739 of 1985 which has been brought by way of public interest litigation raises some seminal questions concerning the true scope and ambit of Arts. 21 and 32 of the Constitution, the principles and norms for determining the liability of large enterprises engaged in manufacture and sale of hazardous products, the basis on which damages in case of such liability should be quantified and whether such large enterprises should be allowed to continue to function in thickly populated areas and if they are permitted so to function. what measures must be taken for the purpose of reducing to a minimum the hazard to the workmen and the community living in the neighbourhood. These questions which have been raised by the petitioner are questions of the greatest importance particularly since, following upon the leakage of MIC gas from the Union Carbide Plant in Bhopal, lawyers, judges and jurists are considerably exercised as to what controls, whether by way of relocation or by way of installation of adequate safety devices, need to be imposed on Corporation employing hazardous technology and producing toxic or dangerous substances and if any liquid or gas escapes which is injurious to the workmen and the people living in the surrounding areas, on account of negligence or otherwise, what is the extent of liability of such Corporations and what remedies can be devised for enforcing such liability with a view to securing payment of damages to the persons affected by such leakage of liquid or gas. These questions arise in the present case since on 4th and 6th December, 1985, there was admittedly leakage of oleum gas from one of the units of Shriram Foods and Fertiliser Industries and as a result of such leakage, several persons were affected and according to the petitioner and the Delhi Bar Association, one Advocate practising in the Tis Hazari Courts died. We propose to hear detailed arguments on these questions at a later date. But one pressing issue which has to be decided by us immediately is whether we should allow the caustic chlorine plant of Shriram Foods and Fertiliser Industries to be restarted and that is the question which we are proceeding to decide in this judgment.
(2.) Delhi Cloth Mills Ltd. is a public limited company having its registered office in Delhi. It runs as enterprise called Shriram Foods and Fertiliser Industries and this enterprise has several units engaged in the manufacture of caustic soda, chlorine, hydrochloric acid, stable bleaching powder, superphosphate, vanaspati, soap, sulphuric acid, alum anhydrous sodium sulphate, high test hypochlorite and active earth. These various units are all set up in a single complex situated in approximately 76 acres and they are surrounded by thickly populated colonies such as Punjabi Bagh, West Patel Nagar, Karampura, Ashok Vihar, Tri Nagar and Shastri Nagar and within a radius of 3 kilometres from this complex there is population of approximately 2,00,000. We are concerned in this Order only with the caustic chlorine plant. This plant was commissioned in the year 1949 and it has a strength of about 263 employees including executives, supervisors, staff and workers. It appears that until the Bhopal tragedy, no one, neither the management of Shriram Foods and Fertiliser Industries (hereinafter referred to as 'Shriram') nor the Government seemed to have bothered at all about the hazardous character of caustic chlorine plant of Shriram. But, it seems that the Bhopal disaster shook the lethargy of everyone and triggered off a new wave of consciousness and every Government became alerted to the necessity of examining whether industries employing hazardous technology and producing dangerous commodities were equipped with proper and adequate safety and pollution control devices and whether they posed any danger to the workmen and the community living around them. The Labour Ministry of the Government of India accordingly commissioned 'Technica', a firm of Consultants, Scientists and Engineers of United Kingdom, to visit the caustic chlorine plant of Shriram and make a report in regard to the areas of concern and potential problems relating to that plant. Dr. Slater visited the caustic chlorine plant on behalf of Technica sometime in June-July 1985 and submitted a report to the Government of India summarising the initial impressions formed during his visit and subsequent dialogue with the management and with one Mr. Harries. This report was admittedly not an indepth engineering study but it set out the preliminary conclusions of Dr. Slater in regard to the areas of concern and potential problems. We do not propose to rely very much on this report since it is a preliminary report.
(3.) It appears that a question was raised in Parliament sometime in March, 1985 in regard to the possibility of major leakage of liquid chlorine from the caustic chlorine unit of Shriram and of danger to the lives of thousands of workers and others. The Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, in answer to this question, stated on the floor of the House that the Government of India was fully conscious of the problem of hazards from dangerous and toxic processes and assured the House that the necessary steps for securing observance of safety standards would be taken early in the interest of the workers and the general public. Pursuant to this assurance, the Delhi Administration constituted an Expert Committee consisting of Shri Manmohan Singh, Chief Manager, IPCL, Baroda, as Chairman and 3 other persons as Members to go into the existence of safety and pollution control measures covering all aspects such as storage, manufacture and handling of chlorine in Shriram and to suggest measures necessary for strengthening safety and pollution control arrangements with a view to eliminating community risk. The Manmohan Singh Committee visited the caustic chlorine plant and inspected various operations including storage tanks, cylinders and tonners and obtained detailed information from the management and after a thorough and exhaustive inquiry, submitted its Report to the Government. This Report is a detailed Report dealing exclusively with the caustic chlorine plant and considerable reliance must, therefore, be placed upon it. The Manmohan Singh Committee made various recommendations in this Report in regard to safety and pollution control measures with a view to minimising hazard to the workmen and the public and obviously the caustic chlorine plant cannot be allowed to be restarted unless these recommendations are strictly complied with by the management of Shriram.;