Justices Nix Immunity for Financier of Indian Power Plant
The U.S. Supreme Court revived a lawsuit [on 27 February 2019] by a group of fisherman in Gujarat, India, who say a coal-fired power plant is threatening their way of life…The lead plaintiff in the case…says that opening of the $4.14 billion Tata Mundra Plant in 2013 has degraded local air quality and severely damaged the marine ecosystem…[Plaintiff] directed his lawsuit…not at Tata Power, the Indian parent company behind the plant, but at International Finance Corp., the private-lending arm of the World Bank Group, which provided $450 million to the project…
The [US Supreme Court] ruling sparked applause from EarthRights International, which represents the villagers alongside attorneys at Stanford Law School’s Supreme Court Clinic. “For years, the IFC has operated as if it were ‘above the law,’ at times pursuing reckless lending projects that inflicted serious human rights abuses on local communities, and then leaving the communities to fend for themselves,” the group said in a statement…Attorneys for the IFC have not returned an email seeking comment…
EarthRights International notes that it has another case pending against the IFC in U.S. District Court for the state of Delaware. Juana Doe et al v. IFC involves IFC projects in Honduras that have been linked to murders, torture and other violence by paramilitary groups and death squads…