SC junks bench change plea in toxic waste case

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Monday rejected an NGO’s plea for change of bench in Madhya Pradesh 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 where it was incinerated.

Citing the views of Asif Qureshi, a professor in IITHyderabad, Grover said the Central Pollution Control Board had said in its 2015 report the toxic waste had high mercury content of 904 mg/kg. “Based on this, the 337 tonnes of waste incinerated should have contained an estimated 49 kg of mercury,” he added.

Grover said the 2025 report “inexplicably” claimed 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,” Grover 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 high court which would decide whether to seek the response of the oversight expert committee about Prof Qureshi’s views, it said.
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