India’s bitter four-year fight with Union Carbide...

India’s bitter four-year fight with Union Carbide Corp. ended with both sides claiming victory in the compensation case for survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster that killed 3,300 people on Dec. 3, 1984. A packed Supreme Court heard Chief Justice R. S. Pathak order Danbury, Conn.-based Union Carbide to pay $425 million and its Indian subsidiary, Union Carbide India, $45 million. The $470-million payment must be deposited at the office of the Supreme Court registrar by March 23, Pathak said at the final hearing on the industrial disaster. “This settlement shall finally dispose of all past, present and future claims. . . . All such claims and causes of action whether within or outside India of Indian citizens . . . are hereby extinguished,” he said on behalf of a five-judge bench.