Justice S.V. Bhat of the Hyderabad High Court suspended the orders of the officers who cancelled the licenses of several traders of Khammam, who were facing charges of selling spurious tomato seeds to farmers. However, the traders were asked to give an undertaking before they commenced business again.
He was dealing with cases filed by Ushasree Traders and others, who complained that the officers had given notice to them to explain why their license to trade seeds should not be ‘suspended’. The officers had then ‘cancelled’ the license based upon a laboratory report that analysed the leaves allegedly grown on plants which had sprouted after the spurious seeds were used by farmers.
The rules require analysis of the seed samples and not leaves. The judge perused the orders, rule position, and material relied upon by the department, and suspended the government’s orders. Traders have to give an undertaking that they will, henceforth, sell only those seeds certified by the competent authority and from an authorised company.
