M.C. Mehta v. Union of India

4 December 1985, 10:30 AM. Exactly one year after the Bhopal disaster, an Oleum gas storage tank at Shriram Foods & Fertilizers in West Delhi ruptured. A thick, suffocating cloud of white fumes swept across Karampura, Kirti Nagar, and the Tis Hazari Court complex. Hundreds were hospitalized; Tis Hazari advocate Charanjit Khatra died from inhalation.

The historic clash between citizens’ right to clean life and heavy industrial enterprise.

A 55-ton storage vessel carrying fuming sulphuric acid (Oleum) collapsed due to structural corrosion of the support joints. Toxic vapor was carried by winter morning winds across residential colonies.

Under the 1868 British rule of *Strict Liability*, companies could escape paying damages if they proved an "Act of God", "Sabotage", or "Natural use of land". CJI Bhagwati realized this old rule was totally unfit for modern chemical industries.

The factory argued it had taken all precautions known to science. The Supreme Court declared that Indian law must evolve its own principles rather than copying outdated English common law.

If a hazardous plant took every safety step prescribed by the government, but a leak still occurs, should it be held 100% liable without any defence?

A toxic gas leak in Old Delhi. The Supreme Court creates the revolutionary Doctrine of absolute liability.