New Delhi: When the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill was passed in Parliament nearly 15 years ago, the Left and the Bharatiya Janata Party—in a rare meeting of minds—had compelled the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government to tighten a clause allowing operators to sue suppliers of nuclear components for damages in the event of accidents.
Now, with the Centre—under the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance—planning to amend the legislation to revive nuclear power projects stalled due to the Act that foreign companies find prohibitive, the situation has reversed. The Congress is now opposing the proposed amendment, claiming that it is being done to “appease French and American companies”.
On Monday, the party accused the Centre of making a “U-turn” from its previous stance on the Act, which was passed by the Parliament in 2010. The principal Opposition party drew a connection between the announcement by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that the Act will be amended and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France and the US beginning Monday.
In her budget speech, Sitharaman had said that development of at least 100 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear energy by 2047 is essential for India’s energy transition efforts, and “for an active partnership with the private sector towards this goal, amendments to the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLNDA) will be taken up.”
Citing a booklet issued by the Ministry of External Affairs on 8 February, 2015, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said that the Modi government had then said that there was “no proposal to amend the Act or the Rules”.
Referring to the Finance Minister’s announcement regarding the amendment, Ramesh wrote in a post on X, “The U-turn has been done clearly to appease French and American companies since the PM is travelling to these two countries over the next four days. Negotiations with these companies have been going on for over fifteen years.”
He added that the CLNDA was passed after extensive discussions, including in the Parliament, and as the then Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the late Arun Jaitley “had played an important role in crafting this law”.
On Feb 8, 2015, the Ministry of External Affairs issued a booklet called Frequently Asked Questions and Answers on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act 2010 and related issues.
Q3 said the following:
“Has India agreed to amend its Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act of… pic.twitter.com/3b2N3ppZxR
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) February 10, 2025
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Jaitley’s intervention
According to Parliament records, Jaitley had indeed played a key role in tightening the clauses in the Act that later became roadblocks in the setting up of nuclear power projects in the country. In his Parliament speeches and public statements, Jaitley had underlined his role in drafting Section 17 of the CLNDA, which deals with the operator’s right of recourse against the supplier in the case of incidents.
Under Section 17(b) of the Act, operator of a nuclear power plant can invoke the right to recourse not just in case of incidents where nuclear damage was done with an “intent”, but also if it “resulted as a consequence of an act of supplier or his employee, which includes supply of equipment or material with patent or latent defects or sub-standard services”.
Participating in the debate on the bill in the Rajya Sabha on 30 August, 2010, Jaitley had said that the “suppliers and their well wishers were raising a phony argument that if liability of the supplier was mentioned in the Bill in Section 17(b), no supplier would make supplies to India”.
“By introducing Section 17 (b), India is not deviating from international practice. India is not acting contrary to the international mainstream. It is only protecting the interests of the operator that is the Government of India, or a government company,” Jaitley had said, accusing the UPA government of persistently attempting to dilute the “Polluter Pays” principle.
In September 2013, after reports emerged that the UPA government was planning to permit the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) to enter into an arrangement with American nuclear vendors, allowing the former to waive off the right to recourse, Jaitley had once again stepped in, saying that a “leopard never changes its spots”.
Even in 2015, the Ministry of External Affairs, in its booklet, had maintained that the provisions of the CLNDA are broadly in conformity with the 1997 Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC) that sought to establish a worldwide liability regime and increase the amount of compensation available to the victims of nuclear accidents.
The ministry had also asserted that Section 17(b) of the CNLDA was “in conformity with and not in contradiction” of the CSC as claimed by many nuclear vendors.
To be sure, the BJP did not just oppose the CNLD Bill, as it was originally introduced by the UPA government, but was against several provisions in the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement, signed in 2008, itself.
Participating in the no-confidence motion brought against the UPA government in 2008, then Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, L.K. Advani had said, “So far as BJP and NDA are concerned, we are not at all opposed to having a relationship with America. But irrespective of how strong or how powerful the other country is, we would never like India to become a party to an agreement, which is unequal.”
Advani had argued that the deal was not one “between two sovereign countries”, but “an agreement between two individuals and if one of the individuals happens to be the prime minister of our country, he thinks that nothing else is more important than to fulfil this agreement”.
“Frankly, Mr. Prime Minister, it does not give me happiness to find that a deal is being gone into in a way which makes India a junior partner in the agreement,” he had said.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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