laws cannot be diluted to suit foreign suppliers
One of the most important provisions of the Civil liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, is Section 17 which makes suppliers of equipment for nuclear power plants liable for mishaps. Parliament gave its stamp of approval to the Act after lengthy deliberations. But now, the Congress-led UPA Government is seeking to dilute the impact of Section 17 by making it optional for Indian operators of nuclear power plants to invoke the Section against the suppliers. There is no other reason why the Government should have asked legal opinion from Attorney General of India GE Vahanvati on a matter that is crystal clear in law. Mr Vahanvati has, as usual, obliged by informing the regime that it is up to the operators to use the provisions of the path-breaking Section of the Act. In doing so, he has offered a window of opportunity, which the Government had been seeking, to let off the hook foreign suppliers of equipment such as reactors, in case a Bhopal-like tragedy were to take place. Now that the devious design of the Union Government is out in the open, senior Ministers have rushed to assure that the Government will under no circumstances weaken the Act and that such an idea had never crossed their mind. If this is indeed the case, what explains the note of the Cabinet Committee on Security — which incidentally came after Mr Vahanvati submitted his valuable legal opinion — that speaks of a proposal for the Nuclear Power Corporation of India limited to sign a deal with a US firm to purchase nuclear reactorsIJ The linkage between the Attorney General's opinion and the move to seal the agreement with the American company is obvious: The US firm will escape the liability clause because the NPCIl, which is Government-owned, will not invoke the provisions of Section 17. The assertion by Government and Congress spokespersons that the Act is not being tinkered with does not hold water, because Section 17 of the Act will become toothless if operators are given the ‘option' to avoid invoking it in agreements which they sign with suppliers of equipment for nuclear power plants.
The Congress-led Government's devious move to sacrifice national interest, coming just before the Prime Minister's visit to the US for a UN meet, can mean only one thing: American pressure is working on the Prime Minister, and that Mr Singh is eager to take along a ‘concession' that he can tom-tom before US President Barack Obama. Foreign firms which are eager to do business with India following the 2008 India-US civil nuclear deal have been opposing the provisions that will make them monetarily liable for mishaps as a result of the equipment they have supplied. They are finding it difficult to get the liability covered by insurance. But that's their problem and New Delhi need not oblige them by compromising on the interests of its people who will bear terrible consequences of an accident. Those who wish to do business with India must do so under laws that Parliament has adopted after careful thought and consideration. Section 17 has provisions that are neither unreasonable nor legally unsound. The expanded concept of supplier liability is the driving force of the Act. The Union Government must drop the idea of watering down the enabling provisions.