MAKE INDEX IMPEX Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India came to be filed by the petitioner being aggrieved by the actions of the Customs Department (respondent Nos.2 & 3) of a refusal to clear the goods in question namely the "Pigeon Peas" and "Soya bean" as imported by the petitioner. These consignments were not being cleared by the customs authorities on the ground that the goods are genetically modified and which if they exceed the permissible parameters cannot be permitted to be cleared and / or they would be required to be re-exported. It is on such premise, that the clearance of the goods being not accepted by the customs authorities, coupled with the fact that the goods were suffering demurrage / storage charges, causing a serious prejudice to the petitioner not only on the rights of the petitioner as a importer but also that on monetary losses being caused to the petitioner, the present petition came to be filed on 17/10/2022, praying for the following reliefs:-

(2.) Perusal of the record would indicate that from time to time the proceedings were heard by different benches from October, 2022. A co- ordinate Bench of this Court (K. R. Shriram & A.S. Doctor, JJ.) in its order dtd. 20/10/2022, accepted an ad-hoc arrangement arrived between the parties, which was without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties in regard to the warehousing of Pigeon Peas and Soya bean.

(3.) A substantive order recording the issues which fell for consideration in the present proceedings was passed by a co-ordinate bench of this Court on 20/1/2023 (Nitin Jamdar & Abhay Ahuja, JJ.). In such order, the contention as urged on behalf of Customs Department, that as per the Import Policy, all imported goods are subjected to domestic laws, acts, rules, orders, regulations, technical specifications, environmental and safety norms as applicable to domestically produced goods, came to be recorded. As also the further contention of the Customs Department that the imported soyabeans are genetically modified and the petitioner's contention that though the goods are genetically modified, they are within the permissible limits set out by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (Respondent Nos.7 and 9) was recorded. Also the contention of the Customs Department that the goods were not cleared by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (for short, GEAC") under the Environment Protection Act , 1986 which deals with genetically modified food and genetically modified organism, was noted by the Court. In the context in hand the Court also noted the relevant clause of the Import Policy (i.e. Clause 6) as relied upon by the Customs Department. The Court observed that considering the larger implications of the issue at hand and as no specific stand of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee and the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) on the subject matter was on record, it was appropriate that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee and the MoEF&CC be impleaded as parties to the petition. Accordingly, the petitioner was permitted to amend the petition to implead such additional respondents. As this order has some relevance, we extract the order hereinbelow:-