By Tariq Bashir, Reuters – An Indian asbestos suit that was dismissed by a court in 2012 was reinstated by the government last month.
The lawsuit, brought by an Indian businessman and an engineer, alleged that the company that owned asbestos tiles and tiles for the company’s plants in the state of Bihar was negligent for not preventing the spread of asbestos, and for failing to provide adequate training to workers in the asbestos-related industries.
The case, filed by a Mumbai-based asbestos settlement company, was eventually settled in December 2012 after a three-year legal battle, but not before a huge number of people were exposed to asbestos-containing dust in Bihar.
The court ruled in December that the asbestos suit against the asbestos tiles manufacturer and the company it hired to install the tiles were invalid.
The Supreme Court upheld the ruling, ruling that the lawsuit had no merit and the decision of the Court of Appeal against the state government to reinstate it in the case was incorrect.
The company that did install the asbestos tile tiles in Bihar is the same as the company who was accused of negligence, said an official at the company.
The state government has said that it is working on installing and maintaining an asbestos-free system at the two plants that produced the tiles, as well as at its other asbestos-affected plants.
The asbestos settlement is being financed by a Swiss-based firm.
The company involved in the deal is also based in Switzerland, Reuters reported.
The decision on reinstatement came after the Supreme Court last year ordered the government to pay damages of $2.2 billion to the families of workers exposed to contaminated dust from asbestos-contaminated buildings.
The ruling was hailed by environmental groups, but also by some lawmakers who had been lobbying for the settlement.
A law to create a national asbestos registry was recently approved by the upper house of the parliament, and it is now under consideration by the cabinet, a government official said.
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