The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on pleas seeking moratorium on the release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the environment.
A bench comprising Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Sanjay Karol heard submissions from Attorney General R Venkataramani, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and advocates Prashant Bhushan and senior advocate Sanjay Parikh. Following, the Supreme Court directed the parties to file written submissions by January 22.
The top court bench on Wednesday stated that it will decide a plea on environmental release of GM mustard on the grounds of what is good for the country. The apex court observed that the issue of genetically modified crops is very technical and scientific.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had questioned the Central government on why the 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).
The Court enquired the 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.
Responding, the attorney general had 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.
Expressing disappointment on the same, Justice Nagarathna stated that GEAC was not working in vacuum. He stated that the court goes to the trouble of appointing a committee and then the committee gives a report, but nobody takes note of it and the 25 October comes. Earlier, the release of the GM mustard was put on hold after the Court asked the Centre to maintain the status quo in November 2022.
The Supreme 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 independent expert bodies.