Corporate Accountability For Workplace Fatalities: Why India Needs A Law On “Corporate Manslaughter
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64252/8ge7xq22Keywords:
corporate manslaughter, Bhopal gas tragedy, corporate criminal liability, Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007Abstract
The “Bhopal Gas Tragedy of 1984”, regarded as one of the worst industrial catastrophes in history, revealed a clear weakness in India's legal system that allowed corporations to escape criminal responsibility for mass deaths. Using Bhopal as a case study to illustrate structural corporate and regulatory shortcomings, this paper makes the case for the adoption of a “corporate manslaughter” law in India. It charts the development of “corporate criminal liability” under common law, contrasts the Indian legal system with the “Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, 2007” in the United Kingdom, and shows how inadequate India's current laws, such as “The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhitha(BNS), 2023”, “The Environment Protection Act, 1986”, and “The Factories Act, 1948”, are at dealing with institutional negligence.
The study also looks at Indonesia's progressive stance on “corporate criminal liability” under “Supreme Court Regulation No. 13 of 2016”, which formally acknowledges corporations as criminals, including those who commit crimes through systemic failure and omission. The study suggests a comparative lens for India's legislative development by incorporating lessons learned from Indonesia's multi-model liability framework and successful prosecutions. It further recommends the establishment of a bilateral mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) between India and Indonesia to enable evidence sharing and cross-border enforcement in corporate criminal matters.
Drawing on legal scholarship and successful prosecutions in the UK and Indonesia, the paper proposes statutory reforms centered on duty of care, senior management accountability, and deterrent penalties. It concludes with policy recommendations to bridge the accountability gap and ensure justice for victims of preventable workplace deaths. The study makes a normative, legal, and policy-based case for urgent reform rooted in human dignity and corporate responsibility.
