Delhi HC notice to Centre in plea against GM soya cake import

The division bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh, while listing the petition filed by Dattaguru Farmer Producer Company Limited for next hearing on Oct 22, said many people may have already placed orders and that any interim stay would have consequences on commercial transactions.

DELHI High Court on Friday issued a notice to the Centre on a petition challenging the government decision to allow import of 12 lakh MT of genetically modified (GM) de-oiled and crushed soya cake. However, the court declined to stay the August 24 government notification issued in this regard.

The division bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh, while listing the petition filed by Dattaguru Farmer Producer Company Limited for next hearing on Oct 22, said many people may have already placed orders and that any interim stay would have consequences on commercial transactions.

The court also said that the importer has not been joined as a party in the case. “Suppose we are granting the [stay], are you ready to pay the damages to the importer of the goods,” the court told the petitioner.

The company, which said it was an association of 2,000 farmers and sold more than 6,000 tons of soybean, in its petition argued that any activity concerning any commodity containing genetically modified material of any nature mandatorily requires prior approval of Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), which has not been done in this case. Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora made arguments on behalf of the petitioner.

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