Bhopal gas tragedy in relation to Vicarious liability
Written By:- Sudeep M
What is Bhopal gas tragedy
It is called worlds worst industrial disaster ,it occurred in December 2nd ,1984 ,at Bhopal in Madya Pradesh .this tragedy was result of the leak of the methyl isocyanate gas from union carbide India Ltd (UCIL) plant which manufactures pesticides , on the night of December 2-3 ,1984 ,there was a leak of the MIC gas which is considered to be most toxic chemical in industrial use. Every city of Bhopal ,people were exposed to this gas and the immediate effects of inhaling this poisonous gas ,resulted in ,very serious permanent injuries ,coughing, vomiting, severe eye irritation and suffocation feelings ,thousands of people died immediately, the long term health effects of the gas include visual impairment ,blindness, respiratory difficulties ,immune and neurological disorders, lung injury female reproductive difficulties and birth defects among children born to affected women .
Background and reason for this incident
A chemical called METHYL ISOCYNATE (MIC) was used for producing pesticides ,therefore the factory stored huge amount of MIC inside its factory on that day dec 2,1984 ,it was a routine day for the UCIL factory of Bhopal ,MIC was stored in underground tank, started at 9;30 pm ,as a routine maintenance operation between 10;30 and 11;30 pm ,workers while washing became aware of leaking but slowly, little attention was paid ,considering it as a normal leak , a casual attempt was taken to find the source of leak but it was no use, the leak continued around 12; 15 am the pressure in the MIC tank ,containing 42 tons of MIC the resulting increased the temperature to over 200 degree sensuous above 12;30 am ,a large amount of MIC leaked in the atmosphere, it is alleged that most of the safety systems were not functioning and that most of the safety valves were in poor condition, around the time the incident took place, also when this incident took place the workers tried to activate the safety systems available in the factory ,but none was in operation condition ,the workers tried to stop leakage gas by water spray ,but water spray reached the [height 100 feet from the ground but gas was 120 feet higher from the ground ,so workers realized nothing could be done to stop that leakage.
Vicarious liability
We can define vicarious liability as ;- the liability of a person for an act committed by another person and such liability arises due to the nature of the relation between the two ….in such a case even though B was not driving the car he will still be liable for the accident which was caused due to the negligence of A , because A was controlled or hired by owner B so whatever negligence committed by A, B will be liable.
So we can understand better by going through some cases
In the case Ormrod v Crosville MOTOR SERVICE Ltd , it relates to liability of the principle for the tort of his agent ,,,,,,,,,owner of a car owner requested his friend to drive his car from birken head to monte Carlo ,on reaching there ,both can use for joint holiday ,shortly after leaving Birkenhead ,his friend caused accident ,so it was held that the owner of car was liable for such negligence of his friend.
In century case ,A’s servant ,the driver of a petrol lorry ,while transferring petrol from the lorry to an underground tank ,he stuck a match to light a cigarette and threw it on the floor ,this resulted in a fire and explosion causing damage to B property ,it was held though driver lighted cigarette for his comfort ,it was negligent to light on his working mode, the act being in the course of employment it was held A was liable for drivers negligence.
In Rajasthan state road transport Corp v K N Kothari it has been held by the supreme court that the transfer of effective control over a servant would make the transferee of the vehicle liable for vicarious liability.
The RSRTC hired a bus and driver for running a bus on specified route. RSRTC hired a conductor, who managed the bus ,collected fare, and had control over bus driver. It was held that for an accident caused by the driver ,the hirer RSRTC was vicariously liable .
Relation of Bhopal gas tragedy to vicarious liability.
Now lets discuss how is vicarious liability has relation to Bhopal gas tragedy, previous page we have already discussed what is Bhopal gas and, vicarious liability .now when we go through this incident we know that ,this installed gas company is under UCC , we can say that it is duty of the company to take necessary safety precaution to public to ensure safe environment for them, even though they don’t had any criminal intentions, the company chairman is vicariously liable for their workers negligence, when we refer above three cases ,even though it is not applicable. So we can find there is relation of vicarious liability.to this tragedy. But on court when action was taken ,The Company refused to admit any kind of negligence on its part and further argued that the officials were in no way involved with the day to day activities of the business and therefore they cannot be held responsible for any negligence on the part of the workers. It was further argued that the accused officials were not even present in the occasion where the disaster took place. All these were based on the principle that vicarious liability is not applicable under criminal law and therefore the directors cannot be held liable for the negligence of the workers.
Conclusion
Even after more than thirty years, Still many people are suffering by this poison, this incident teaches us that, we should never ever let this incident to happen again, more than any technology or ,any machines, our safety ,and health is important, there are many things we should learn from this disaster ,likely ,Government should place constant surveillance to look after activities of machines, and industries Government should maintain super safety measure ,checking and regulating safety machines every three months, using human friendly technology , that doesn’t affect health , still thousands innocent people have facing these bad consequence , this type of incident requires super speedy justice ,government should always make sure to provide relief and compensation to every victim until their health condition becomes normal.
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