New Delhi, May 11 (IANS) The Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed a petition of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging its 1996 verdict diluting the charges against accused Keshub Mahindra, then United Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) chairman, and six others for causing death due to negligence.

The investigative agency had moved the apex court, seeking a direction of the framing of charges against Mahindra and others for culpable homicide not amounting to murder that attracts the maximum imprisonment of 10 years.

The charges against the accused were diluted by the apex court by its Sep 13, 1996 judgment. They were convicted by a Bhopal court last year under the less stringent provision of causing death due to negligence, carrying a maximum punishment of two years' jail.

Delivering the judgment for the constitution bench, Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia said that after the 1996 verdict, the accused could not be tried under the stringent provisions of law without any basis.

The court said the 1996 judgment in no way shackled the trial court from framing the charges under the stringent provisions of the criminal procedure court.

The Union Carbide disaster, in which poisonous methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the plant on the night of Dec 2-3, 1984, killed 3,000 people instantly and 25,000 over the years. It also affected 100,000 people and estimates are that more than 500,000 continue to suffer from ill effects of the gas till date.