Ban on harmful pesticides: SC asks Centre, “You kept appointing till you get a favorable report,” matter listed for hearing on August 01

The Supreme Court (SC) heard a batch of petitions seeking a ban on 116 pesticides since they were found to be harmful to the health of children. While hearing the matter, the bench came down heavily on the Central Government that keeps on constituting multiple expert committees for examining the issue. They were slammed by the bench because of their inability to explain the reason for the same. Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, Justice Manoj Misra, and Justice JB Pardiwala said that constituting multiple committees gave an impression of seeking a favorable report related to the truncated list of banned pesticides by the Central Government. CJI asked for a reason for the same from Dr. TP Rajendran's committee, “We want to know why has Centre appointed committee after committee even though they asked for a ban on 27 pesticides. You kept appointing till you get a favorable report? I want to know what was the occasion to constitute the Rajendran committee. We will hear this next Tuesday (August 01).”

Earlier, the Government in its draft notification highlighted 27 pesticides for banning but there were only 3 pesticides on which banned was imposed as per the final notification. On March 27, the Supreme Court asked the Central Government to record two expert committee reports. Along with this, the SC asked for a reason regarding the ban on only three pesticides. The matter was then heard on 25 July where Advocate Prashant Bhushan appeared for the petitioners and Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee appeared for the Centre. During the court proceedings, Advocate Bhushan told “Only 3 pesticides have been banned out of the 27 pesticides recommended. Those 3 are the ones which are not in use anyway.” Further, ASG submitted, “18 pesticides were to be continued, 27 pesticides to be continued but to be reviewed. We are still under consideration. Now, Dr. SK Khurana committee is considering this.” After hearing the arguments from both sides, CJI said, “We want to know what process was followed because what we can now know is that the government keeps on making committee after committee because it is not getting favorable recommendations. So, we want to know when this will be resolved.”

Also Read: Legal Articles