Observing that Right to life is a paramount consideration, the Supreme Court on Friday banned the manufacture, sale and use of pesticide endosulfan in the country for eight weeks.
A three-Judge Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI)S.H. Kapadia and Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar, in a brief order, said: “Keeping in mind various judgments of this court under Article 21 [right to life and liberty] of the Constitution and particularly keeping in mind the precautionary principle, we, hereby, direct and pass an ad interim order for immediate ban on production and use of endosulfan all over India.”
The Bench directed the statutory authorities to freeze the production licences granted to the manufacturers of endosulfan till further order.
It took note of the submissions of Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, (who also assisted the court as amicus curiae) that two committees were set up — one headed by the Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research and another by Agricultural Commissioner — to study the harmful effects of endosulfan on human life and environment, and said these two committees should be amalgamated into one.
The Bench said the expert committee would submit its interim report on whether the pesticide should be banned or its existing stock should be eliminated in phases and if there was any alternative to the controversial pesticide.
The Bench passed this order on a petition filed by the Democratic Youth Federation of India, after its senior counsel Krishnan Venugopal and Deepak Prakash urging the court to impose a ban on production and sale of endosulfan in its present form or any other derivatives in the market.
Appearing for the private manufacturers, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi said that endosulfan was cost effective and no alternative pesticide was found out so far. He opposed a ban at this stage, saying the court could wait till the report was submitted by the expert committee.
However, the CJI told counsel, “we don't want even one child to suffer either for six or seven weeks as human life was the paramount consideration. We go by Article 21 and polluter pay principle laid down by this court. Whether there is valid licence or not Article 21 is higher than the statute. Don't go by money alone. You have corporate social responsibility also.”
The petitioner said, “considering the harmful side effects on the people, the State of Kerala had imposed a ban on endosulfan. The excessive use of chemicals and pesticides for optimising agricultural production created alarming danger to health and safety of living beings in general and agricultural workers in particular” It sought an all India ban.
Keywords: Endosulfan, Supreme Court
Our people who have celebrated the approval of the recommendation for elimination of production and use of Endosulfan by Stockholm Convention at Geneva are still not aware of the constraints faced by state governments which had banned the pesticide. A national level ban will take time as the central government still awaits the report of ICMR. Further the ban is to be formally ratified by the Parliament. In fact the SC bench had clamped just an eight weeks' ban on Endosulfan awaiting the combined report to be submitted by ICMR and Agricultural Commissioner. This must temporally gratify the agitating populace in affected regions. The formalities in respect of arriving at the compliance mechanism for banned persistent organic pollutants and financial assistance to developing countries and countries with economies in transition to meet the treaty obligations are still underway. We cannot expect Indian government to expedite its home work on ban to avoid hanging on issues for first five years and then to seek renewal of exemptions for the next phase of five years. Taking into account the period of one year for affecting the listing, the phase- out period may get stretched for eleven years! Moreover it will be a distant dream to identify a cost effective alternative to Endosulfan.
Unfortunately exemption will be covered to majority of crops other than Cashew and thus it will be a herculean task for Kerala and Karnataka governments to clamp ban in remote regions for few more years. Lobbying by the pesticide industry will attempt to prevail on the regime to extend the usage for the next 11 full years! Probably this threat can be overcome if there is a concerted mission around the globe for identifying alternatives to Endosulfan.
As commented by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, probably India must give a thrust for genetic modifications in cultivation of a host of crops which have to facilitate to dispose of Pesticides. We may have to adopt new technologies backed with adequate safety measures and should not be technophobic.
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