Harm done to environment can't be reversed, Supreme Court defers hearing on GM mustard [29.8.2023]

The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred the consideration of the Centre's plea for the withdrawal of an oral undertaking made to the court in November last year pledging to maintain the status quo on the release of genetically modified (GM) mustard.

The undertaking was made before a bench headed by Justice Dinesh Maheshwari who has since retired.

The application for the same by the Centre will now be considered on 26 September.

"The seeds were already sown in eight out of ten sites. When this court asked us not to take precipitative action in view of the matter being listed in the following week for final hearing, I gave this assurance. The next sowing season was also one year away. This undertaking was made under these circumstances. We are at the last phase of research. This is not a commercial release, but environmental release," said Additional Solicitor-General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre.

Countering this argument, Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Aruna Rodrigues, said that environmental release means release into the environment. "If they want to do any test, they can do it in greenhouse conditions so that it is not released into the environment and contaminate other non-GM crops. The technical expert committee constituted by this court said, in no uncertain terms, that no open-field trial should be allowed unless the whole regulatory system, which is in shambles, is fixed first," he said.

"If your Lordships discharge us from our undertaking, we can proceed to sow the mustard seeds at the ten sites initially proposed and carry out the research. This court, while deciding this matter, will also have the benefit of our reports. Alternatively, at least allow us to sow the seeds in the eight sites that we studied last year and place our report before this court. We are keen on not losing this season," Bhati said.


30 Aug 2023