Date:06/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/06/stories/2006090608981200.htm

National

Bt cotton: notice to three States

J. Venkatesan

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu on petitions filed by Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) Limited and five others challenging the trait value of Rs. 750 per unit of 450 gm of Bt Cotton fixed by these States.

A Bench comprising Justice A.R. Lakshmanan and Justice Tarun Chatterjee issued the notice after hearing senior counsel Ashok Desai and asked the respondents to file their response.

The petitioners submitted that the sub-licensees and seed producers were now disabled from making a payment of Rs. 900 per unit of 450 gm of Bt cotton as they were restrained from recovering from seed distributors/farmersany amount in excess of Rs. 750 per unit.

The petitioners pointed out that under an agreement the producers took the technology on sub-licence from the company and thereafter incurred expenditure on seed production.

It was contended by the first petitioner that the orders passed by the three States fixing the trait value were ultra vires, arbitrary, discriminatory and without any legal basis.

They said that the parent Monsanto Company, U.S., was a developer of technology relating to genetically modified foods and crops.

This technology had been licensed to the petitioner, which had given sub-licences to the seed producers.