Nuke Bill goof-up: minimum turns maximum

In an embarrassing turn of events for the government on the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill,it has now emerged that there is no extraneous legal compulsion...

In an embarrassing turn of events for the government on the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill,it has now emerged that there is no extraneous legal compulsion to cap the overall liability amount at 300 million special drawing rights (SDRs). In fact,the international convention India wants to join sets the amount only as a minimum floor for eligibility and not as an upper ceiling.

This has now prompted a rethink on the operative portions of the Bill. In fact,sources said,the advice of the Ministry of External Affairs during consultations was to treat the amount as a floor and yet the Bill ended up projecting it as a cap. More importantly,the government seemed to justify that this was done to meet the pre-conditions of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC) for Nuclear Damage.

Its,however,learnt that while detailing the specifics the Bill needs to address for India to become eligible to join the CSC,the MEA had made it known that 300 million SDRs was the floor and not a cap and also that the liability needs to be fixed on the operator and not the supplier.

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Still,the Department of Atomic Energy retained the language which capped the amount. Now,after all the opposition,the DAE is said to be coming in for sharp criticism within the government for keeping the drafting of the Bill such a secret affair even though the PMO too was involved in the process.

The details about the liability were meant to mirror the requirements marked in Article III of the CSC,which spells out the undertaking a country wanting to join the regime needs to make. It states: The Installation state shall ensure the availability of 300 million SDR or a greater amount that it may have specified to depository at any time prior to the nuclear incident.

Yet,Indias Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill,which has become a controversy even before its introduction,states: The maximum amount of liability in respect of each nuclear incident shall be the rupee equivalent of three hundred million Special Drawing Rights.

Given that there was no need to specify a maximum amount,sources said,the Bill could just have identified this as the minimum amount available on the table in case of an incident while remaining silent on the upper limit. Instead,the Bill caps the liability which was a step beyond what was needed.

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There is still no clarity on the reasoning behind limiting the governments overall liability when it is well known that the government will have to go to any extreme in case a disaster of this nature were to happen.

With the government now having no choice but to refer the Bill to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav,the DAE is now taking a relook at the draft Bill. Sources said changes are being explored,especially on the issue of the liability amount and suggestions like having a fixed amount per megawatt too are being examined.

Further,its learnt that the PMO has asked the DAE to have wider consultations than to keep the matter under wraps. Much of the criticism of the Bill,sources explained,has been due to a lack of clarity on various technical and legal issues which are becoming clear only after the Bill ran into rough weather.

As for US companies,sources said,there should be no major issue there because the Bill makes it clear that the liability lies solely with the operator and not the supplier,which in the Indian context is the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd.