Major Maritime Casualties under India's Merchant Shipping Act, 2025: Liability, Response and Limitation

The Merchant Shipping Act, 2025 marks a significant transition in India’s maritime legal framework by consolidating and restructuring the law governing maritime casualties in closer alignment with international conventions. This paper examines the liability, response obligations and limitation rights arising from a maritime casualty involving a collision between an oil tanker and a container vessel in Indian territorial waters. Adopting a doctrinal research methodology, it analyzes the statutory framework governing collision liability, oil and bunker pollution, salvage, general average, wreck removal and limitation of maritime claims. Particular attention is given to the interaction between the Act and the relevant international conventions, including the 1992 Civil Liability Convention, the 2001 Bunker Oil Pollution Convention, the 1989 Salvage Convention and the 1976 Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims. The paper also evaluates the significance of the express provision on conduct barring limitation and the implications of maintaining separate liability regimes for different sources of marine pollution. It argues that, while the 2025 legislation strengthens the coherence of India’s maritime liability framework, questions concerning limitation funds, overlapping liability regimes and the treatment of general average remain open to judicial interpretation. The paper concludes that effective implementation and consistent judicial interpretation will be essential to ensuring accountability, environmental protection and legal certainty in maritime casualty disputes.