THE Supreme Court on Monday (November 14) will hear a PIL filed by a group of civil society members – including former bureaucrats, scientists and NGOs – seeking its direction for halting construction of all proposed nuclear power plants in the country.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia will take up the joint Public Interest Litigation (PIL) urging the apex court to declare as "unconstitutional" the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 and "appoint an expert independent body to conduct a thorough safety reassessment of all existing and proposed nuclear facilities across the country".
The petitioners, including former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian, former Chief of Naval Staff L Ramdas, former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami, K R Venugopal – former Secretary to the Prime Minister, and nuclear scientist P M Bhargava, have said an expert nuclear regulator, independent the government be set up to conduct comparative cost-benefit analysis vis-a-vis other sources of energy.
They submitted the apex court should declare that in the case of a nuclear accident, all nuclear operators and nuclear suppliers would be jointly and severally, and absolutely liable for civil damages, and their financial liability would be unlimited.
"Issue an appropriate writ cancelling clearances given to proposed nuclear power plants and stay all proposed nuclear power plants till requisite safety assessment studies, thorough comparative cost- benefit analysis and meaningful public hearings are carried out by or under the supervision of an independent expert body," the petition said.
