The Supreme Court said on January 16 it would not permit decommissioned French aircraft carrier Clemenceau to dock in India for being broken up as it was carrying toxic waste but modified this after the owners said they would satisfy the court there were no pollutants on board.

Shipping Decommissioning Industry Corporation (SDIC), the French company that is carrying out dismantling of the ship, gave an undertaking that it would not bring Clemenceau into India's exclusive economic zone while the matter was pending before the apex court.

The undertaking came after judge Arijit Pasayat, speaking for a two-judge bench that also included S.H. Kapadia, said: "We don't want the environment to be polluted. When the French government had not permitted the ship to be broken there, why should we allow the ship to come to India?

"Whether breaking the ship will result in pollution or not is immaterial. The best thing will be to ask the ship to go back from where it started," the court maintained.

The observation came when the bench took up for consideration the report of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Waste that met in Mumbai earlier this month, stating that the ship should not be allowed to enter Indian waters as it contained a large quantity of asbestos.

Counsel for SDIC requested the court to adjourn the matter since the committee was to meet again in Mumbai Jan 20.

The court should await the final recommendation of the committee before causing any order, counsel said.

The court then adjourned the hearing to Feb 13.

The bench asked senior counsel for the customs department A. Subba Rao to file an affidavit indicating the steps it had taken to allow or prevent the ship from entering Indian waters.

"You cannot wash off your hands. Tell us whether we can allow such a ship to enter," the court observed.

Clemenceau, heading for the Alang ship-breaking yard in Gujarat, is facing protests from environmental groups in India who say it is carrying 45 tons of hazardous asbestos.

Counsel for the French government Pinky Anand denied the ship contained contaminated asbestos. Asserting that the French government had not violated any law, she said: "We will place all the materials before the (Supreme Court monitoring) committee at its meeting on Jan 20."

Petitioner's counsel Sanjay Parikh submitted the ship should not be permitted to enter India. He said that by allowing the ship, India would be violating the Basel Convention and other environmental laws. According to him, the ship should be totally decontaminated before being allowed into Indian waters.

Advocate S. Murlidhar who had filed an application stating that the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee had previously permitted a Danish ship to enter India for being broken up, said the committee must explain "the difference between the Danish and the French ships".

Source: Greenpeace