The government told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it was committed to the safe use of genetically-modified (GM) crops and “accordingly robust evaluation systems are in place”. Bt cotton was approved in 2002 after an elaborate safety-assessment exercise spanning over seven years, the Centre said.
The court is hearing public interest litigations challenging the environment ministry’s decision to release the commercial cultivation of GM mustard.
This is the first time that a GM food crop is set to be commercially grown. On the third day of hearing, the Centre told the apex court that India has a robust regulatory framework in place for the regulation of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) and products made of it.
“The approval to Bt cotton and Bt brinjal by Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) and Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has been accorded on the basis of an elaborate set of guidelines and procedures.
These guidelines are based on state-of-the-art international guidance developed after years of consultations with agencies like FAO, WHO, OECD and Codex Alimentarius,” the government said in its filing.
The court, on January 11, had expressed displeasure at the GEAC for not reviewing recommendations of the court-appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) before taking its decision in October 2022 to release the GM mustard variety into the environment. The TEC had made specific recommendations, with one member disagreed.
The Centre, represented by Attorney General for India R Venkataramani, had told the court that the GEAC had not viewed the committee’s report as there was no legal requirement for it to consider such reports.
It should be said that the release of the GM Mustard was put on hold after the Court asked the Centre to maintain status quo in November 2022.
The Centre also asserted that the regulatory mechanisms have not faltered and operated in a most transparent way.
“In fact, all the data, reports and decisions, have been made accessible on the website for information of the public,” it said. The GEAC functions under the ministry of environment, forests and climate change.
During the hearing, the Bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Sanjay Karol said one can have different schools of thought and judges cannot go into a debate with scientists. “We have to decide what is good for India,” Justice Nagarathna said.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for one of the petitioners, said their concern is the irreversible risk of contamination that the country faces if environmental release of GMOs is approved. This is in basis of the fact that the safety of GMOs has not been setup for the health of humans, livestock, environment, biodiversity and unintended consequences.
“Further, the TEC has shown the adverse consequences that arise due to use of GMOs and studies showing the risk to human health, environment, & biodiversity. The Union of India is silent as to the measures it will put in place to ensure that there is no contamination of the fields of farmers,” he told the court.
