Truncated list of banned pesticides: Supreme Court asks Centre whether it will keep forming expert committees till it gets favourable report

The Supreme Court on Tuesday took exception to the Central government constituting multiple expert committees one after the other to examine the issue of ban on hazardous pesticides [Vanashakti and ors vs Union of India and ors]..A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that forming such multiples committees gave an impression that same was being done to get a favourable report which is in tune with the Central government's truncated list of banned pesticides.The government had initially listed 27 pesticides in its draft notification but the final notification had only three pesticides on which ban was imposed.The Court had during the last hearing on March 27 asked the Central government to place on record two expert committee reports relating to harmful pesticides and had also asked the government to explain why only three pesticides had been banned.When the matter came up for hearing today, the CJI asked what was the reason for constituting Dr. TP Rajendran committee last year."We want to know why has Centre appointed committee after committee even though they asked for a ban on 27 pesticides. You kept appointing till you get a favorable report? I want to know what was the occasion to constitute the Rajendran committee. We will hear this next Tuesday", the CJI remarked.It then posted the case for further hearing on August 1. The Court was hearing a batch of petitions seeking ban on 116 pesticides in the country. .Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee appeared for Centre. Advocate Prashant Bhushan appeared for the petitioners..The petitioners moved the Court contending that those have been banned internationally since they were found harmful to the health of children.The Central government opposed the plea arguing that companies put a lot of effort in developing pesticides.The Supreme Court had during the last hearing turned down the government's request to place the reports only before the bench without sharing it with the petitioner.The CJI had stated that the apex court needed to be convinced about the process of narrowing down the number of banned pesticides to three.