NEW DELHI—The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Union government to reply to a contempt petition filed against the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) for allegedly allowing field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops in violation of the court’s orders.
The petition, filed by anti-GM activist Aruna Rodrigues, comes at a time when the GEAC, the national regulator, is reportedly considering whether to allow commercial cultivation of GM mustard.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, representing Rodrigues, told the Court that the any approval for GM mustard would go against an expert committee’s report on the issue.
The contempt petition, a copy of which Mint has reviewed, claimed that the field trials held for herbicide tolerant (HT) crops of mustard, cotton and corn ignored biosafety precautions that had been directed by the apex court.
The petition also said that all biosafety-related documents, data and minutes of meetings regarding the issue were not available in the public domain.
The petition referred to a Supreme Court appointed technical-expert committee report which recommended a ban on all HT crops.
The case will be heard after two weeks, a bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur said.