A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court on Friday asking the court to direct that an expert body, independent of the Government and the nuclear establishment, conduct a thorough safety re-assessment of the country's existing and proposed nuclear facilities.
It also wanted the court to direct this body to carry out a comprehensive safety re-assessment of the country's mining facilities of uranium and other nuclear fuel.
The PIL also sought the court's direction for an independent expert body to conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis of all proposed nuclear facilities and a thorough comparative cost-benefit analysis vis-à-vis other sources of energy.
The petitioners in the PIL include NGOs Common Cause and Centre for Public Interest Litigation as well as prominent persons such as former Cabinet Secretary Mr T.S.R. Subramanian, former Chief Election Commissioner, Mr N. Gopalaswami, and former Navy Chief Admiral L Ramdas.
The petitioners are represented by advocate Mr Prashant Bhushan. This petition seeks other reliefs in the interest of right to life, right to clean environment and right to healthy and safe enjoyment of life.