CHENNAI: The first bench of the Madras High Court on Friday declined to order the arrest of the two ships – MT Dawn Kancheepuram and BW Maple – that caused the massive oil spill near Ennore port after a collision on January 28.
In his PIL, ME Raja, president of National Union of Fishermen at Royapuram, prayed for a direction to the authorities to take action against the two ships and recover the cost of removing the oil slick.
When the matter came up before the bench of Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice M Sundar, petitioner’s counsel submitted that under the National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is responsible for maintaining and implementing the plan.
Under the principle of ‘polluter pays’, the two ships should pay the cost of the cleaning operation. Unless the ships are ordered to be detained, they will flee and the government may not be able to recover anything, he contended.
The bench replied that this, of course, in no manner absolves the government of the responsibility to take necessary steps to remove the pollutant, for which the Chennai Bench of the NGT has already been approached.
“We are of the view that no direction can be issued in the matter, except to observe that the government may look into the issue to take such steps as deemed proper in the given situation, especially keeping in mind that as per the petitioner, there have been some recent developments in terms of registration of an FIR and some action post filing of the PIL. The petition, accordingly, stands disposed of,” the bench said.