SC rejects plea for change in MP HC bench in Carbide waste case

New Delhi: Supreme Court on Monday rejected an NGO's plea for change of bench in MP HC which stayed an earlier direction for identification of a site away from habitation for safe storage of incinerated residue of toxic waste from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, a poisonous gas leak which had killed thousands in 1984.A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi also rejected the plea of senior advocate Anand Grover, who appeared for ‘Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahyog Samiti', seeking opening of the concrete box in which the ash and incinerated residue of the toxic waste is stored to test the veracity of an expert's opinion that it contained high mercury content, which if leaked could contaminate groundwater at Pithampur.Citing the views of Asif Qureshi, a professor in IIT-Hyderabad, Grover said the Central Pollution Control Board had in its 2015 report stated that the toxic waste had high mercury content of 904 mg/kg. "Based on this, the 337 tons of waste incinerated should have contained an estimated 49 kg of mercury," he added. Grover said the 2025 report "inexplicably" claimed that mercury was not detected in the incinerated ash or residue. "Scientifically, mercury does not simply disappear; its ‘absence' in the 2025 report indicates either a massive environmental leak has occurred or, more likely, the testing process failed to detect it," he added.CJI Kant and Justice Bagchi said the HC had monitored the incineration process and had delegated the disposal to an oversight committee of experts. The petitioner must approach the HC which would decide whether to seek the response of the oversight expert committee about Prof Qureshi's views, it said.Grover said on Oct 8 last year, the HC had rejected the MP govt's proposal to contain the toxic residual waste at the incineration site situated 500 metres from human habitation. Recognising the catastrophic potential of containment breach, it had directed the govt to identify alternative sites far from habitation.However, the subsequent bench on Dec 10 without any change in circumstances or new expert data stayed the Oct 8 directions and delegated the disposal process to an expert committee ignoring "the rigorous safety mandates and alternative site requirements being pursued by the earlier bench", Grover said and requested the CJI to ask the HC CJ to change the bench that had passed the Dec 10 order.The bench refused and asked Grover's client NGO to move the HC with necessary requests. It requested the HC to consider the new petition, which is to be filed by the NGO, on its own merit and decide expeditiously.