Some news today about Mahyco’s (Monsanto’s Indian partner) suit in the Delhi High Court challenging the Central Information Commission’s November 2007 order which required the Department of Biotechnology to disclose information pertaining to Bt Brinjal.
The Maharashtra State Information Commission had previously denied this request on the ground that it “would affect the competitive position of a third party” (Sec. 8 ) – in this case Monsanto. The CIC had overruled this decision holding that notwithstanding the existence of such a ground of withholding of information, where public interest lay in the disclosure of information, such information could not be denied. The Delhi High Court passed an interim order in December 2007 staying the order till the next hearing of the case on April 23.
More details in this Business Standard article.
Greenpeace has obtained similar data on Monsanto’s genetically modified insect resistant maize in Europe through a court order. The Monsanto data, when independently evaluated, had given rise to conclusions that were contradictory to Monsanto’s observations.
Armed with the new data, the international NGO had launched a campaign, though not with much success, to see that the marketing approval given to the particular maize variety (MON 863) in Europe was withdrawn. Greenpeace is looking at the possibilities of a similar review of the data generated by Mahyco for its brinjal variety..
What’s startling about this suit is that Mahyco’s argument that in disclosing this information, India is violating our TRIPs data protection obligations. This is the Novartis case all over again. The Delhi High Court is notoriously more narrow-minded with patent suits and I hope this isn’t a strategy to arrive at data protection by other means.
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