Thaindian News

Ajmer, Aug 1 (IANS) After announcing that the government may not interfere in the re-election of Keshub Mahindra, convicted in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, as Mahindra and Mahindra chief, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid Sunday said it was too early to take a decision on this.
“Lets not decide in a hurry,” Khurshid said here on the margins of a function.

Mahindra, who in June was convicted for two years for his negligence in the Bhopal gas leak that killed thousands, was recently re-elected the company chairman by M&M shareholders.

Mahindra was a non-executive chairman of Union Carbide India Limited from whose plant the deadly MIC gas leaked on the night of Dec 2-3, 1984.

Following the conviction, the corporate affairs ministry initiated an internal discussion to examine if he could be barred from being a director of any company.

Deciding against it, however, the corporate affairs minister a few days ago denied any action being taken by his ministry, calling Mahindra’s election the result of a well-thought “legal consultative process”.

“The law is clear (that) someone convicted can’t be in the board of any company. But the case is subject to appeal. We must not take any decision immediately,” he said.

The corporate affairs minister, however, added that there was no need to tell the law to the veteran industrialist.

“Keshub Mahindra is an erudite and iconic person in the corporate field. There is no need to tell him what is the law,” Khurshid added.