US Supreme Court Ends Immunity of The World Bank Group
By CFA | May 22, 2018
the U.S. Supreme Court decided that international organizations like the World Bank Group can be sued in U.S. courts...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.
Links to the various court documents and coverage in the media.. are provided including..
Gujarat Farmers Win The First Round Against World Bank Payaswini Upadhyay https://www.bloombergquint.com/law-and-policy/gujarat-farmers-win-the-first-round-against-world-bank February 28 2019 In an important victory for the fishing community and farmers of Mundra, Gujarat, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed them to sue World Bank’s private lending arm—International Finance Corporation. The IFC had loaned $450 million for the construction of Tata Power’s Mundra power plant in 2008. The loan agreement gave IFC supervisory authority over the project which included implementation of an Environmental and Social Action plan. The fishing and farming community had sued IFC claiming that its failure to supervise this plan had caused environmental damage — pollution from the plant harmed the surrounding air, land, and water.
Gujarat Fishermen’s Landmark Victory in US Supreme Court Goes Unreported in Indian Media https://thewire.in/rights/gujarat-fishermen-victory-us-supreme-court-unreported
Local fishermen said a power plant financed by an arm of the World Bank led to air, land and water pollution. The group tried to claim absolute immunity, but the US Supreme Court did not agree....
the worrying thing from the judgment is how the Centre and the state governments, through their Pollution Control Boards, turned a blind eye to the environmental pollution, which the local fishermen alleged, as a result of the functioning of the Mundra plant.
Should not the Indian government have at least belatedly come forward to bear the litigation expenses of the Mundra farmers and offer help in further litigation in the lower courts in the US following this landmark judgment? May be that would be too much to expect from the current governments at the Centre and in Gujarat, hardly known for their concerns for environmental pollution caused by mega projects.