Of the US$1 billion in initial compensation the Supreme Court ordered over the X-Press Pearl disaster, only about US$1 million has reportedly been paid, Attorney-at-Law Ravindranath Dabare says — a gap he presents as the central argument for international legal mechanisms to hold multinational corporations to account.
Dabare, speaking on behalf of the Centre for Environmental Justice, Friends of the Earth International and a global campaign, said environmental degradation transcends national borders and that domestic legal systems alone may be insufficient where effective international enforcement is lacking, the Daily Mirror reported.
The case he cites
The X-Press Pearl caught fire and sank off Sri Lanka’s western coast in May 2021. Dabare noted the vessel was carrying hazardous chemicals — nitric acid, caustic soda and methanol — along with 1,680 tonnes of plastic pellets, the nurdles that washed onto beaches for months afterwards. The disaster damaged marine ecosystems, hit fishing communities and raised long-running public health concerns.
A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court delivered what Dabare called a landmark judgment in July 2025, recognising human rights violations associated with the disaster and ordering companies linked to the incident to pay an initial US$1 billion.
The archive confirms the shortfall from a different direction
The figure Dabare gives is not an isolated claim. In September this desk reported that Dr. Chamal Sanjeewa of the Medical and Civil Rights Doctors’ Association had lodged a bribery complaint with CIABOC against three Supreme Court judges, alleging their conduct led to the loss of nearly US$999 million of the compensation owed by the shipping company and its local representatives.
US$1 billion ordered, less US$1 million recovered, leaves US$999 million. Two parties with no evident connection to each other — a doctors’ association president in September, an environmental lawyer in October — describe the same shortfall to the rupee, from opposite ends of the argument. Sanjeewa’s complaint attributes it to the judges; Dabare attributes it to the weakness of national enforcement against transnational corporations. Neither account has been answered publicly by the companies or by the court.
What he is arguing for
Dabare’s broader point is that ecosystems, oceans and biodiversity amount to a shared global heritage, and that destruction caused by transnational corporations harms future generations as well as present ones. He argues the enforcement gap demonstrates the difficulty states face in recovering adequate compensation from powerful multinationals, and that stronger international mechanisms are needed when domestic systems fail affected communities.
Dabare is not a new voice on this beat. He appeared for the Centre for Environmental Justice in May, when the Court of Appeal issued notices on a CEJ writ petition alleging state authorities had failed their statutory disaster-preparedness duties.
Not reported
The filing does not name the forum at which Dabare was speaking, identify the global campaign he spoke for, say which companies have paid the US$1 million or when, or state what recovery steps — if any — the Attorney General’s Department is currently taking.
