The Bombay High Court on Friday asked the Maharashtra government whether proper security measures have been provided to nuclear scientists at their workplace.

A division bench of justices VM Kanade and BP Colabawala directed the government and the department of atomic energy to file their affidavits in two weeks. It was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL), seeking formation of a special investigating team (SIT) to probe the deaths of several nuclear scientists.

The PIL was filed by activist Chetan Kothari, through advocate Ashish Mehta, claiming that India is turning out to be a dangerous place to work for nuclear scientists. His petition states that over the last few years, a number of India's nuclear scientists have been dying under mysterious circumstances and the police are classifying them either as "unexplained" or "suicides".

Justice Kanade said: "Several decades back many scientists had died because they were not provided suits. Does exposure to nuclear radiation cause cancer which then leads to death? We would like to know if proper security measures have been provided to the scientists."

The court further said that if something untoward were to happen in the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Trombay, it would impact all the people of Mumbai.

Kothari had sought information under the RTI Act in 2010 from the police and public information office, seeking a list of scientists and employees in BARC who had committed suicide during the last 15 years. He was informed that five employees had killed themselves.

He had sought similar information from Institute of Mathematical Science, Heavy Water Plant, Baroda, and other important departments. He received information and, from the data collected, he is of the view that Indian nuclear scientists have not had an easy time for the past decade.

The petition claimed, "Our prestigious scientific community been plagued by 'suicides' and unexplained deaths but these deaths have mostly been ignored."

The petitioner has pointed out a few media reports and also a few incidents where bodies of scientists were found in suspicious circumstances in 2009 and 2010 but were tagged as suicides and the matters closed.