Striking down the DBT's contention that the data falls under
Section 8.1.d, Mr. Habibullah pointed out that having heard the
arguments and perused the document, we find that the request of the
applicant for toxicity, allergenicity, (for GE rice, GE mustard, GE
okra and GE brinjal) cannot be refused under the RTI act, and since
that the appellate authority of DBT, in his order, held, that the
information does fall under only sec, 8.(1).(d), any further
grounds for non disclosure are invalid even if the data in
reference are in the process of development. The information was
also directed to be disclosed under section 4. (1). (d) of the RTI
Act, which states "provide reasons for its administrative or quasi
judicial decisions to affected persons".
In February, last year, Greenpeace, under the Right to
Information Act, had requested the RCGM to make public the toxicity
and allergenicity data for GE brinjal, rice, mustard and
ladyfinger. There was also a request to make the minutes of the
RCGM meeting public. The RCGM refused to divulge the data on the
grounds that disclosure of the information would harm the
competitive position of the third party, in this case, the company
making the GE crops, therefore placing the economic interest of the
corporation above public interest.
"Our victory today is in keeping with the spirit of the RTI, and
has only strengthened the RTI as a tool to building a participatory
democracy. The GE corn (Mon 863) is the first, where a GE
product, unfit for human consumption, has been commercialised
deliberately (1). With the data in the public domain, it is now up
to each of us to critically analyse the quality of our tests, the
monitoring and evaluation mechanisms so as to ensure the health and
safety of us and the environment, said Greenpeace campaigner,"
Divya Raghunandan, who had challenged the RCGM, and had filed the
appeal petition before the CIC.
Commenting on the order of the Commission, Ms. Aruna Roy, one of
the founder member of the National Campaign for People's Right to
Information (NCPRI) and former member of the National Advisory
Council (NAC) said, "this exceptional case before the Commission
has paved the way for the RTI act to establish the right of
citizens to access information regarding industry and its impacts.
The people have a right to analyse the information and see the
nature of its impacts on their lives. This decision will force the
government to strike a balance between ensuring corporate
accountability and fostering business."
Supreme Court advocate, Mr. Prashant Bhushan said, "The
Commission's order is significant as past experience shows that
RCGM has not used the right kind of protocols for bio-safety
testing. Once it's known that a system designed to protect human
and animal health has approved a high-risk product without a
proper, transparent and independent examination of its dangers, we
need to have an immediate moratorium on all environmental releases
of GMOs which pose an unprecedented threat to the health of humans,
animals, microorganisms, and biodiversity in general. No GMOs must
be released till we have put in place a transparent system in place
with an independent regulator with no conflict of interests"
• For background on the case, please visit
www.greenpeace.org/india/assets/binaries/ge-right-to-info
For further information, contact
Divya Raghunandan, Greenpeace GE-free India campaigner @ 9845535406
Saumya Tripathy, Greenpeace Communications @ 9343862212
Notes to Editor
(1) Mon 863, an unsafe variety of GE corn was released into the European market. Last month, the journal, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology published the analysis of the safety tests submitted by Monsanto to the European Commission. Laboratory rats, fed with this GE corn, produced by Monsanto, had shown signs of toxicity in kidney and liver. The data shows that MON863 has significant health risks associated with it. Nonetheless, the European Commission refused to make the data public, overlooked the risks to health, and granted licences to market the corn for consumption by both humans and animals. The incriminating evidence was obtained by Greenpeace following a court case, and passed on for evaluation by a team of experts headed by Professor Gilles Eric Séralini, a governmental expert in genetic engineering technology from the University of Caen.
(2) It is only after the report of cattle deaths after consuming Bt Cotton in Andhra Pradesh, did the DBT ask for feeding tests that involve green foliar material, and not just cotton seed.