No commercial release of GM mustard for now

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) mustard crop in India and asked the central government to first take suggestion and views of the public on the controversial subject.

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) mustard crop in India and asked the central government to first take suggestion and views of the public on the controversial subject.

A woman tends to her mustard crop. Mustard is one of India’s most important winter crops which is sown between mid-October and late November. (HT file photo)

A bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice AM Khanwilkar told the Centre not to commercially release GM mustard till October 17, when it will hear the issue in detail. Additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta agreed with the bench’s direction.

Mustard is one of India’s most important winter crops which is sown between mid-October and late November. The court was hearing a plea filed by activist Aruna Rodrigues seeking a stay on the commercial release of GM Mustard crop and prohibition of its open field trials.

Rodrigues’s plea sought to prohibit open field trials and commercial release of Herbicide Tolerant (HT) crops, including HT Mustard DMH 11 and its parent variants.

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The plea said there was a slew of “illegal regulatory decisions to bring HT hybrid Mustard DMH 11 and its two HT parental lines, to the point of imminent commercialization”.

“The contamination of our seed stock and germ plasm as will happen with mustard HT DMH 11 and its HT parents will be irremediable and irreversible making our food toxic at the molecular level (without recourse),” the plea said.

It said a comprehensive, transparent and rigorous bio-safety protocol should be carried out before releasing the GM version of the crop as recommended by a Technical Expert Committee (TEC) report.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, alleged that the Centre is sowing the seeds in various fields without putting the bio-safety dossier on website.

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“Since the claimed yield superiority of HT DMH 11 through the B&B system over Non-GMO varieties and hybrids is quite simply not true, in fact a hoax, as will be amply demonstrated, there is no purpose to this GMO HT mustard for India,” the petition said.

(With inputs from agencies)