New Delhi, July 2: The Supreme Court on Monday extended, till 2022, the time for creating away-from-reactor (AFR) facilities to store Kudankulam nuclear power plant's spent fuel, currently kept within the plant.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud's decision came as Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that AFR facilities will be created in the extended time being sought by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL).

The earlier deadline came to an end on May 31.

The court was earlier told that the process to complete the AFR facility was going on and the spent nuclear fuel at present is stored in the Tamil Nadu plant's spent fuel storage bay, designed to survive earthquakes as per the specific site.

The court asked counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for original petitioner G. Sunderrajan, to move a separate plea as he said that the extension of time should not mean that the NCPIL have unrestricted nod for operating the plant and creating more spent fuel.

The apex court, by its 2013 judgment, gave the nod to operationalise the first unit of the plant with a direction to the government and NPCIL to submit a report on the compliance of all safety steps before the plant is commissioned.

It asked the government and the NPCIL to find suitably safe areas to dispose the nuclear waste and also issued guidelines on commissioning, safety and security and environmental issues concerning the nuclear plant.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (PTI): A case has been registered against six doctors of a private hospital in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar for allegedly misleading the father of a child who died under their care, police said on Friday.

The accused doctors also allegedly tampered with the evidence, they said.

According to a release by the police, a 5-year-old kid was admitted to Vedant Hospital in the city’s Sutgirni area on April 26. The boy underwent a surgery at the hospital the same day.

The child died on May 6 after being under treatment for nearly 10 days.

The boy’s father Avinash Aghav has alleged that his son died due to wrong treatment at the hospital. He also claimed that evidence was destroyed and papers related to the treatment were not given to him, the release said.

The complainant has accused the hospital of tampering with the CCTV footage of the premises from April 26 to April 28, the release said.

The doctors – Arjun Pawar, Shaikh Ilyas, Ajay Kale, Abhijit Deshmukh, Tushar Chavhan and Nitin Adhane – were booked on Wednesday for causing death by negligence and destruction of evidence under the Indian Penal Code, the release added.

The police release did not explain the time gap between the death of the child and the registration of the case against the doctors.