SC gives spilt verdict on environmental release of GM Mustard

New Delhi [India], July 23 (ANI): Supreme Court on Tuesday gave split verdict on the aspect of environmental release of genetically modified (GM) mustard.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Sanjay Karol disagreed with each other on aspects of the environmental release of genetically modified mustard and referred the matter to a larger bench.

The top court directed the registrar to place the matter before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud to constitute a larger bench on this issue.

However, both judges agree that the Centre should evolve national policy in relation to GM crops. The top court directed the government to consider a policy with regard to genetically modified crops.

Justice Nagarathna disagreed with GM Mustard’s release in India and criticised the government for showing undue haste in getting the GEAC approval. Justice Nagarathna held that the approval by GEAC dated October 18, 2022, and consequent decision is under gross violation of the law.

Justice Nagarathna said that the failure to adequately assess health is in gross violation of the principle of intergenerational equity and public interest as well.

In a dissent view, Justice Sanjay Karol said that he did not find any evidence of arbitrariness or irregularity on GEAC decision on GM mustard in October 2022.

Justice Karol noted that the approval granted by GEAC is by an expert body.

The court was hearing various pleas against the Centre’s decision on environmental release of GM mustard.

Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued on behalf of the Centre Government and advocates Prashant Bhushan and senior advocate Sanjay Parikh represented the petitioner in the matter.

The SC had said that it will decide on GM mustard issue on the basis of what is good for the country, as it cannot go into a scientific debate on the matter.

Earlier, Attorney General R Venkataramani justified the government’s decision to approve the commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) mustard.

Various petitions were moved in the Supreme Court challenging the Union Environment Ministry’s decision to approve commercial cultivation of Genetically Modified (GM) mustard.

In an affidavit filed earlier by Centre, the government submitted that the Union of India is committed to increasing farm productivity and the income of farmers through development of low-input, high-output agriculture and make the country self-sufficient in edible oil and grain legumes. To achieve this objective, several nations around the world have safely employed genetic engineering (GE) technologies. To safely encourage this endeavour in India, an elaborate statutory scheme exists to ensure effective regulatory review for the research, development and commercial use of GE technologies.

Approximately 55-60 per cent of edible oil in India is imported. Strengthening of plant breeding programmes, including use of new genetic technologies such as GE Technology, is critical for meeting emerging challenges in Indian agriculture and ensuring food security while reducing foreign dependency, the Centre has said.

Centre had submitted that issues raised by the petitioners fall within the domain of the executive, aided by scientific and other technical experts and the research, development and use of genetic engineering technologies is a highly technical matter guided by views that emerge from scientific consensus among subject experts. As such, it is most humbly submitted that the inquiry of this Court may be limited to whether there is an adequate regulatory mechanism in place governing this field and whether there has been material compliance with the same, the union government had submitted.

Centre had also said that the controversy raised by the petitioners concerns a conditional approval made to the CGMCP for environmental release of transgenic mustard hybrid DMH-11 and its parental lines bn 3.6 and modbs 2.99 containing barnase, barstar and bar genes prior to commercial release. This conditional approval has been made after a long and exhaustive regulatory review process which commenced as far back as in 2010.

It is to be noted that this approval of environmental release prior to commercial release is for the purpose of undertaking seed production and testing of hybrid of DMH-11 and developing new parental lines and hybrids under the supervision of Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR). As such, this conditional approval pertains to an environmental release prior to commercial release and is subject to necessary regulatory and technical oversight, the government has said.