The Supreme Court Monday sought response from the Centre on a plea seeking stay on its decision to allow the commercial roll out of Genetically Modified (GM) mustard crop in the country.
It asked the Centre, petitioner NGOs and activist Aruna Rodrigues to come up with some scientific data and studies to substantiate their arguments.
It also asked the chairman of Technical Expert Committee (TEC), set up by the apex court, to be present on next date of hearing to assist in the matter.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Indira Banerjee said it would like to hear the matter at length next month "as these issues cannot be kept pending for long".
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Rodrigues, said that government had earlier assured the court that before allowing commercial roll out of GM mustard crop in the country, it would seek the court's permission.
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Bhushan said a TEC report has pointed out that the entire regulatory system was in shambles and a 10-year moratorium should be given.
He said that despite court's order and contrary to the report of TEC, the government has allowed commercial use of GM Mustard crop.
The top court said: "It is a matter which requires detailed hearing. All the parties should file written arguments in detail before the next date of hearing."
The Centre had told the apex court that it will soon take a decision on whether to allow the commercial roll out of GM mustard.
The top court had then said that if the government takes a decision in favour of GM mustard crop, then the court would like to hear the petition challenging the commercial release.
It had earlier granted time to the Centre to apprise it as to by when it will take a "well-informed and well-intentioned" policy decision on the roll out.
The apex court had on October 17, 2016 extended the stay on the commercial release of GM mustard crop until further orders.
It had also asked the Centre to seek public opinion on such seeds before releasing them for cultivation. Mustard is one of India's most important winter crops which is sown between mid-October and late November.
Rodrigues has alleged that government was sowing the seed in various fields and said the bio-safety dossier has to be put on the website, which has not been done yet.
Alleging that field trials were being carried out without doing relevant tests, she had sought a 10-year moratorium on them.
Rodrigues had filed the plea seeking a stay on the commercial release of GM Mustard crop and prohibition of its open field trials.
She had also urged the court to prohibit open field trials and commercial release of Herbicide Tolerant (HT) crops including HT Mustard DMH 11 and its parent lines/variants as recommended by the TEC report.
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