New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to permit commercial use of four species of Bt. cotton varieties subject to certain conditions. The varieties are Bt. cotton Cry 1 Ac MON 531, Cry 1 Ac & Cry 2 Ab MON, GFM Cry 1A gene and Cry 1AC gene (Event 1).

A Bench comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices Tarun Chatterjee and D.K. Jain passed this order on an application filed by the Centre seeking to vacate the interim stay on further approvals.

No further modification

The Bench said the GEAC, while considering the grant of approvals, "should satisfy itself that these events are not further genetically modified so that no further species is created by such modification."

It should also verify whether these species by commercial use cause toxicity or allergenicity to any of the users in organic tests conducted with the varieties of Bt cotton. If any such test was conducted, the data should be made available to the court.

The Centre said that in view of the September 22, 2006 stay order, "the GEAC is not in a position to grant approval for various applications which are pending with the authority. All these applications are for conducting field trials on various varieties of plants. The GEAC, during May 2, 2006- September 22, 2006 granted approvals for 24 items in respect of Bt cotton, Bt cauliflower, Bt brinjal, Bt rice, transgenic rice, Bt castor, groundnut, transgenic tomato, potato and other items. The field trials are going on in respect of these items and the court in the said order also noticed that 91 field tests have been going on."

Field trials

Prashant Bhushan, counsel for the petitioner, Aruna Rodrigues, said precautions were not being taken in these field trials and serious pollen contamination of similar species on neighbouring fields was likely.

200-metre distance

Taking note of this submission, the Bench said the GEAC should take precautions to see that these trials did not contaminate cultivation on neighbouring fields. For field trials, there should be at least a 200-metre distance from the neighbouring field having the same type of cultivation.

In all trials, the name of the scientist and other details of who would be responsible for the trials should be reported to the GEAC, and there should be regular supervision by them.

Prior to bringing the GM material out of the greenhouse for open field trials, "the approved institution should submit a validated event specific test protocol at an LOD of at least 0.01% to detect and confirm that there has been no contamination," the Bench said.

The matter has been adjourned to August.

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