Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

6. To begin with, the ICMR had undertaken certain research works immediately after the Bhopal Disaster and appropriate steps had been taken, as claimed by the State and the Central Government, to deal with the medical problems of the gas victims. However, it appears from the record and has been averred before us that after 1994, the ICMR allegedly took an irrational decision to disband all Bhopal Gas Disaster related medical research. This abandoning of research work has been seriously criticised in the present petition. Certain appeals had been filed against the order of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh which came to be registered as Civil Appeal Nos. 3187-3188 of 1988, which were subsequently clubbed with Writ Petition (Civil) No. 50 of 1998. I.A. Nos. 32-35, 36-37 in Civil Appeal Nos. 3187-3188 of 1988 titled “Union Carbide Corporation Ltd. v. Union of India” were filed for seeking different directions, upon which and vide order dated 15th May, 1988, this Court directed creation of the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (for short ‘BMHRC’) and the Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust (for short ‘BMHT/the Trust’) which was constituted for the purposes of healthcare of the affected gas victims. This hospital initially was to run for a period of eight years which term was extended from time to time and then finally, vide order dated 2nd May, 2006, the term was extended till completion of its object. Further, vide order dated 17th July, 2007, this Court also sought report from the ICMR on various toxic effects of the leaked gas.

7. This Court also, by order dated 17th September, 2004 passed in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 50 of 1998, ordered the constitution of two expert committees being the ‘Monitoring Committee’ and the ‘Advisory Committee’. The latter was formed by ICMR under the Chairmanship of Director General of ICMR and its terms of reference were as follows:

“(i) To examine the treatment practices currently followed by medical personnel in the hospitals/clinics run by the Government for the Bhopal Gas victims for the various ailments suffered by them.

(ii) To recommend/advise on the appropriate line of treatment to be offered to the Bhopal gas victims.

(iii) To recommend/advise on the structure and content of the research to be undertaken in order to improve the quality of the treatment being offered to the Bhopal Gas victims.”

8. The Advisory Committee has been submitting its reports from time to time and it was assured by the State Government that the said Committee will be provided with all facilities and technical inputs. Then, the ICMR conducted its research investigation in the form of 24 major research projects ranging from epidemiology to molecular biology implemented by 15 National Institutes. Vide letter dated 17th February, 2004, from the Director General of ICMR to the Government of Madhya Pradesh it was indicated that with respect to future needs for research, ICMR would facilitate the Madhya Pradesh State Government by constituting a Committee of experts which would look into the work carried out between 1985 to 1994 as well as the subsequent research by the Centre for Rehabilitation Studies under the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department (for short, the ‘BGTRRD’), Bhopal from 1995 till date, so as to provide guidelines for future research. On 24th June, 2010, the Union Cabinet passed a resolution directing the ICMR to establish a new permanent research centre at Bhopal which was done on 11th October, 2010, namely, the National Institute of Research in Environment Health (for short the ‘NIREH’). The research work is being continued by the ICMR, while it submits its report to this Court from time to time. The vision document was duly prepared by the NIREH.

16. Thereafter, certain IAs came to be filed before this Court. In these IAs, different parties had prayed for issuance of different directions in relation to the working, management and control of BMHRC. IA Nos.62-63 of 2011 in Civil Appeal Nos.3167-3188 of 1988 have been filed with the prayer that the Union of India be directed to take charge of the corpus funds of the erstwhile BMHT through its Department of Biotechnology and Department of Atomic Energy and transfer the accounts of BMHT to the new management. It was also prayed that the management of the erstwhile BMHT be relieved of all its responsibilities pertaining to management of the corpus and new authorised signatories be appointed for its accounts. One of the petitioners in the main petition filed an application being IA No. 14 of 2012, primarily relying upon the letter written by Dr. Sathyamala, (Member, Advisory Committee) to Dr. P.M. Bhargava, (Member, Advisory Committee and Chairperson of the Task Force). It was prayed that the same be taken on record and the Advisory Committee be directed to submit minutes of its meetings dated 13th August, 2009, 22nd September, 2010 and 10th December, 2011. Petitioner Nos.1 and 3 have filed IA No.16 of 2012 wherein they have prayed for issuance of certain directions. In this application, it has been stated that the Monitoring Committee in its reports dated 10th June, 2005, 31st October, 2005, 12th July, 2006, 20th December 2006, 7th August, 2007 and 27th May, 2008 have consistently recommended computerization of the hospital records and issuance of ‘health booklets’ to the gas victims. It is averred that recommendations of the Advisory Committee have not been complied with by the State Government, the ICMR and even the Union of India. They have also made a suggestion for issuance of ‘smart cards’ to the gas affected victims besides issuance of proper health booklets. The NIREH, as established by the ICMR, though was a welcome step, according to these applicants much is desired of the functioning of NIREH. The allegation is that the decision makers at the ICMR are doing everything on their part to ensure that the crucial issues affecting the life and health of the gas victims remain unaddressed at a macro level. All the concentration presently is on building the infrastructure for the NIREH. On this premise, the applicants have prayed that the orders of the Court should be complied with by the State of Madhya Pradesh as well as the ICMR for issuance of ‘health booklets’ and ‘smart cards’ to the affected persons. They also prayed for adoption of a common referral system among various medical units under BMHRC and under the BGTRRD so that the gas victims are referred to the appropriate centres for proper diagnosis, investigation and treatment in terms of the nature and degree of injury suffered by each one of them and also in terms of therapeutic requirements. They also prayed that NIREH be directed to set up completely computerized and centrally networked Central Registry, to maintain proper medical records of all gas victims, to streamline and intensify epidemiological studies among the gas-affected population and to prepare treatment protocol for treating each category of ailment that the gas victims are suffering, such as respiratory diseases, eye-related diseases, gastro-intestinal diseases, neurological diseases, renal failure, urological problems, gynaecological problems, mental disorders, etc.