NEW YORK - Billions of dollars in damage claims arising from the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster that killed an estimated 2,000 people should be decided by courts in India, not in the United States, a federal judge ruled.

The decision Monday by U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan was a victory for Union Carbide Corp., which fought for a year to send the case to India. U.S. courts, which traditionally deliver more money to accident victims and deliver it faster than their Indian counterparts, were favored by lawyers for the victims and by the Indian government.

"In the court's view, to retain the litigation in this forum, as plaintiffs request, 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 in a 63-page decision.

"This court declines to play such a role," he said. "The Union of India is a world power in 1986, and its courts have the proven capacity to mete out fair and equal justice. To deprive the Indian judiciary of this opportunity to stand tall before the world and to pass judgment on behalf of its own people would be to revive a history of subservience and subjugation from which India has emerged."

Keenan also wrote he was "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."

Carbide lawyer William Krohley said the company had expected to win on the jurisdictional issue because India is "the only proper place" for the litigation. He said company officials were pleased.

Attorney Aaron Broder, whose partner F. Lee Bailey was part of the three-man executive committee appointed by Keenan to speak for the victims, said the ruling would be appealed.

Jack S. Hoffinger, a New York lawyer who coordinated the efforts of plaintiffs' attorneys, said the ruling was not "cause for elation by Union Carbide.

"It would be a cause for elation if the case was settled in a way acceptable to all sides, and if the victims get protection, and soon," Hoffinger said.

Keenan had delayed his ruling for several months as he tried to coax all sides into reaching a settlement. At one point last month Union Carbide announced a tentative $350 million deal with lawyers for individual accident victims, only to have the pact fall apart in the face of objections from the New Delhi government.

In addition to those who died, 200,000 people were reported injured when methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide plant in central India on Dec. 3 , 1984. The plant was owned by Union Carbide India Ltd., which is in turn mostly owned by Danbury, Conn.-based Union Carbide.

U.S. government tests have indicated that scores of the surviving Bhopal victims likely will suffer lifelong health problems from having inhaled the gas.

Union Carbide, at Keenan's suggestion, agreed in November to provide $5 million for the Indian Red Cross for disaster relief. The payment was not an admission of liability.

In its arguments on where the case should be heard, Union Carbide said Union Carbide India Ltd. was independent and responsible alone for its Bhopal plant.

Union Carbide also said the gas leak may have been caused by sabotage and said a court close to the scene would stand the best chance of finding the truth. It did not present direct evidence of sabotage.

In response, lawyers for the victims argued that India's court system is not equipped to provide swift justice in so complicated a case. And the Indian government, while not conceding that its courts may be inadequate, said large corporations must be held accountable for their subsidiaries. Carbide's Indian unit possesses only a fraction of the assets that would be available to satisfy a claim against the parent.