NEW YORK - Victims of the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster should seek justice in Indian, not American courts, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Court Judge John F. Keenan's decision was a victory for Union Carbide Corp., which had fought to move the case to India. Attorneys for the Indian government and for victims of the toxic gas leak, which killed more than 2,000, favored U.S. courts.

But Keenan did imposed several conditions designed to subject Union Carbide to the procedures and reach of American courts as well.

Before dismissing the 145 lawsuits that were filed in U.S. courts and consolidated in his courtroom, Keenan said he would require the company to agree to satisfy any judgment reached against it by the Indian courts; to submit to the American style of pretrial discovery, in which each side produces documents and testimony requested as evidence by the other, and to give up any defense based on the statute of limitations.

"This Court is firmly convinced that the Indian legal system is in a far better position than the American courts to determine the cause of the tragic event and thereby fix liability," Keenan wrote in his 63-page opinion.

An attorney for the victims said that they intend to appeal.

In a written statement, Union Carbide said it was pleased with Keenan's order but did not specifically address the conditions.

The Bhopal disaster, generally considered the world's worst industrial accident, injured an estimated 200,000 people when methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide India Ltd. pesticide plant on Dec. 3 , 1984. Union Carbide India is mostly owned by the Danbury, Conn., based Union Carbide.

Union Carbide had argued that the case should not be heard in the United States because of the complications of holding a trial so far from the site of the accident. The company also claimed Union Carbide India alone was responsible for the Bhopal plant.

But the plaintiffs and the Indian government argued that American courts were in the best position to render justice. American lawyers for the Indian government and the victims claimed that Indian courts were not equipped to deal with a case on the scale of the Bhopal disaster, citing differences in law and long delays caused by case backlogs numbering in the millions.

The plaintiffs had also argued that the victims would only be able to obtain judgment from Carbide's Indian subsidiary, whose assets are far smaller than its multinational parent company.

The lawyers apparently believed American juries would be more likely to produce multimillion-dollar judgments than juries in India, where the average standard of living is much lower and annual incomes are a tiny fraction of those in the United States.

"In the court's view, to retain the litigation in this forum . . . would be yet another example of imperialism, another situation in which an established sovereign inflicted its rules, its standards and values on a developing nation," Keenan wrote.

"The Union of India is a world power in 1986, and its courts have the proven capacity to mete out fair and equal justice," Keenan added.

Keenan also said that he was dismissing the case because Indian courts would have better access to information and witnesses and that the cost of the litigation in U.S. courts would be an excessive burden to American taxpayers.

Attorney Aaron Broder, whose partner F. Lee Bailey was one of the members of a committee appointed by Keenan to speak for the victims, said that he anticipates that the plaintiffs will still appeal Keenan's ruling. Trying the case in the United States, he said was "an opportunity to show to the world that we were providing our extraordinary system of justice to the littlest sparrow that has fallen."

The Indian government's American attorney in the Bhopal lawsuits said that his preliminary reading of Keenan's order was positive. Of the conditions imposed on Union Carbide, the lawyer, Michael V. Ciresi, said: "Those conditions cover most of the reasons we sought jurisdiction in the United States. We think the monkey's on Union Carbide's back. They have to accept the conditions."

Soon after the disaster, a group of American attorneys descended on Bhopal and started signing up clients, prompting cries of ambulance chasing. Ultimately, 145 actions brought by American lawyers throughout the country were consolidated in Keenan's court. A $350 million settlement reached in March by American attorneys for individual accident victims was rejected by the government of India, which passed a law last year saying that it was the only legitimate representative for Indian claims.

Ciresi said Monday that India continues to consider the $350 million offer to be inadequate. "Any (court) award in India will be well in excess of $350 million," he said.

Keenan also dismissed contentions that the cases should remain in his court, because Indian judges customarily show little interest in promoting out-of-court settlements.