ABHISHEK MALVIYA Vs. ADDL WELFARE COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN the case of Union Carbide Corporation Vs. Union of India, 1991 SCC (4) 584, the Apex Court observed as under :--

(2.) THE present litigation relates to a situation wherein the manifestation was really at a much later stage inasmuch as the petitioner was in his mother's womb. In the 'puranas' it has been narrated that "ashtabakra" learnt 'shashtras' while he was in the womb of his mother and listened to the sagacious discourses of his father and 'abhimanyu' son of 'sabyasachi' acquired the knowledge of penetrating into the imbroglio of a 'chakravyuha' but in the case at hand the petitioner became a victim of the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster.

(3.) IT is apposite to state here the unprecedented tragedy required a different legal outlook and the Apex Court took a pragmatic approach and remembered the wise saying of Oliver Wendall Holmes, an eminent American Judge, that 'life of the law has not been logic : it has been experience' and giving a go by to the rigmarole of the legal process initially passed a decree obtained on consent and at a later stage refused to review the same. While expressing hope and trust that the refusal to review the earlier decree would be the epitaph on the litigation their Lordships touched many an aspect. In Paragraph 205 the Apex Court raised a question :