GM mustard row: Supreme Court will only examine 'judicial aspects'

While hearing the plea challenging the sowing of genetically modified mustard in the country, the Supreme Court on Thursday said it will not get into the technical aspects of the case, but examine the judicial part.

The parties informed the bench of Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia that submissions have been filed by all parties concerned after the Centre submitted its affidavit on November 10.

The next hearing will be on November 29.

The counsel for Gene Campaign, a petitioner in the case, said they have made their submissions before the court and said their main concern was that the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) report, which warned about the dire effects of GM mustard, was not read out before the court.

Meanwhile, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Aruna Rodrigues, said the approval to GM mustard on October 25 is contrary to TEC report. “We have filed a compilation,” he said.

This comes after the government told the Supreme Court that approval for the “environmental” release of transgenic mustard hybrid DMH-11 has been given to the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP) after a long and exhaustive review process, which started in 2010.

The court had told the Centre on November 3 not to allow the planting of genetically modified (GM) mustard until the next hearing.

The Centre had told the court it needed time to put the latest facts on record.

In its 67-page affidavit, the Centre submitted the background of the application given by the CGMCP, the decision-making process of the government, the regulatory framework under which permission was granted to DMH-11, and its scientific and socio-economic importance to the country.

It said conditional approval (of DMH-11) pertained to an environmental release prior to its commercial release and was subject to regulatory and technical oversight. The Centre also in its affidavit said opposition to GM crops was unfounded as India was already importing and consuming oils made from it.

Bhushan had also said the court-appointed TEC had advised against using any herbicide-tolerant crop.

“It also said the regulatory system in India was in a shambles and needed to be revamped,” he said.

He said the shoring up of the system needed at least 10 years.