Sandeep Sethi, Tushar Mehta, Rajeev Nayyar in Mahyco’s price control plea before Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court today paved the way for the Union government to impose price controls on BT cotton seeds. Justice Manmohan refused to stay the January 27 decision of Ministry of Agriculture to bring genetically modified (BT) cotton seeds under price control..The Union had also proposed to setup a Committee that would regulate price control of the seeds. This would include regulation of royalty payments made to the technology providers by Mahyco Monsanto Biotech India Pvt. Ltd (MMBL), a joint venture company providing genetically modified seeds. MMBL supplies the genetically modified Bt cotton technology to 49 seed companies in India in exchange for royalties..The company had challenged the decision before the High Court on the grounds that as per the Essential Commodities Act of 1955, only the price of a commodity could be regulated..Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi who appeared for Mahyco argued,.“The technology supplied by the company is covered under the Patents Act, 1960, and therefore will be covered under the patent regime. They [the Government] can not fix the price or royalty at which I will supply my goods to the seed manufacturers.”.The Union was represented by ASG Tushar Mehta & Senior Advocate Rajeev Nayyar with Mehta arguing, that Mahyco was ‘exploiting India’ and was giving all relevant information on seed production to China..He agreed to put down his submissions on record, by way of an affidavit..After hearing submissions made by both sides while the Bench declined to stay the Govt’s decision, it also stated that ‘any further action by the Union would be subject to future orders of the Court.’ The case will now be heard on March 4.