A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana was told by lawyer Prashant Bhushan that now, the approval for cultivation of herbicide-tolerant GM basmati rice has been given and hence the contempt plea be heard as early as possible.
The lawyer referred to the 2024 judgment delivered by a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Sanjay Karol, which had a split verdict on one issue that was referred to a larger bench.
He said the contempt petitions arose from the common judgment and were unrelated to the reference concerning GM mustard, which was listed before a special three-judge bench.
“The contempt petitions are not related to the reference. They arise out of the common judgment of the court. They can be listed before the regular contempt bench,” Bhushan submitted.
He said the contempt petition, filed in 2025, had not been taken up despite being mentioned earlier.
According to him, the special bench hearing the GM mustard reference had declined to hear the contempt petitions.”They have now given the go-ahead to plant genetically modified basmati rice, which is a herbicide-tolerant variety. It will destroy our basmati. It will contaminate and cause havoc,” Bhushan said, urging the court to list the matter at the earliest.
The contempt plea was filed by activist Aruna Rodrigues as part of her PIL initiated in 2025.
It seeks contempt proceedings against senior government officials, alleging wilful and deliberate disobedience of the Supreme Court’s orders on the release of genetically modified and gene-edited crops.
The petition alleged that the Centre violated the apex court’s July 23, 2024, judgment, which directed it to formulate a comprehensive national policy on GM crops through a consultative process involving experts, state governments and other stakeholders before releasing such crops.
It alleged that herbicide-tolerant basmati rice varieties, branded as ‘RobiNOweed’, were commercially released in May 2024, while gene-edited rice varieties, including DRR Rice 100, branded as ‘Kamla’, and Pusa DST Rice 1, were released in May 2025.
According to the plea, these releases were made despite the government’s earlier assurances to the court that no environmental release of GM crops would take place before the formulation of a comprehensive policy.