 "GM mustard")
The Supreme Court on Thursday questioned the Centre about why reports of the court-appointed Technical Experts Committee (TEC) on biosafety of genetically modified (GM) Crops were not looked into by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC).
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Sanjay Karol asked Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, whether the GEAC or a sub-committee of experts ever considered the reports filed by TEC before the October 25, 2022 decision to approve the environmental release of transgenic mustard hybrid DMH-11.
The attorney general said being a statutory body, the GEAC is not supposed to go into these reports but has considered every relevant scientific finding before giving the go-ahead for the environmental release.
Responding to the top government law officer's contention, Justice Nagarathna said, "The reason why we are asking this is because GEAC was not working in a vacuum. It is not unguided. These are the reports including a dissent report submitted to the court on the issue. Will these reports be consigned to the record room if the GEAC or the sub-committee of experts are not considering it?"
She told Venkataramani that TEC reports of 2012, with a dissenting note by its member RS Paroda, are lying in the court's record.
"What weight should be given to these reports if the GEAC is not to consider these documents?" she asked.
Venkataramani said a detailed analysis of the TEC's recommendations and steps taken by the Centre reveal that the regulatory regime has been further strengthened since 2012 to ensure that a comprehensive, transparent and science-based framework is in place for environmental risk assessment of GM crops.
More From This Section
He said the conditional approval granted for environmental release of GM Mustard was an example of effective implementation of the strengthened regulatory framework.
"Even for grant of conditional approval for environment release, a rigorous risk analysis approach was taken and the complete procedure, which included safety assessment of both environment and health risks, lasted over 10 years. A comprehensive timeline of events leading up to the conditional approval detailing the entire regulatory process has been placed before this court," he said.
"Deliberations on the varying understandings on applications of science and technology will lie in the domain of the governance engagement. Mere differences of opinion in such matters need not necessarily be the reason for the court entering into the evaluation of such views and adopting or rejecting any one of them," he said, adding the progress of science depends on verification, validation and repudiation.
The top court is hearing separate pleas by activist Aruna Rodrigues and NGO 'Gene Campaign' seeking a moratorium on the release of any genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the environment pending a comprehensive, transparent and rigorous biosafety protocol in public domain conducted by agencies of independent expert bodies the results of which are made public.
The Centre is also seeking withdrawal of an oral undertaking given in November 2022 by its law officer about not pressing ahead with commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) mustard.
On August 29, 2023, the top court had observed that environmental harm cannot be undone after the Centre said either it be discharged from the oral undertaking of November 2022 or, alternatively, the government be permitted to sow GM seeds this season at some sites.
On November 3, 2022, the top court had ordered status quo on the GEAC's decision to approve GM mustard for commercial cultivation.
The top court had earlier said it was more concerned about the risk factors than anything else when it came to the conditional approval granted by the Centre for environmental release of GM mustard.
At a meeting on October 18, 2022, the GEAC, the country's regulator for genetically modified organisms, recommended the environmental release of mustard hybrid DMH-11 for seed production and testing "as per the existing ICAR guidelines and other extant rules/regulations before commercial release".
The transgenic mustard hybrid DMH-11 has been developed by the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP) at Delhi University.
The government has so far approved only one GM crop- Bt cotton- for commercial cultivation in 2002.
The hearing in the matter remained inconclusive and will resume on January 16.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
