PMFAI files interim application

Pleads to be allowed to export formulations

The Pesticides Manufacturers and Formulators Association of India (PMFAI) today filed an interim application in the Supreme Court seeking permission to export the existing stock of endosulfan formulations.

The respondents said that there was an existing stock of 2698.56 KL of formulations and wanted to be able to export it after making it into exportable form and repackaging them for exporters.

The three judge bench comprising chief justice SH Kapadia, justice Swatantar Kumar and justice KSP Radhakrishnan observed that while they were definitely not going to allow it's use in India if there were other countries interested then they should be allowed to import it. However the Democratic Youth Federation of India, the petitioners in the case, intervened and said that this was a ploy of the manufacturers to take more orders and expand business.

The PMFAI counsel and senior advocate Harish Salve told the court that this wasn't being done to increase export orders but to meet the export demand. The court had granted permission to export 1090.596 MT of technical grade endosulfan, while the export orders are for 1734 MT. The formulators have in their possession about 214.593 MT of technical grade of endosulfan.

Apart from allowing formulations, through the interim application the PMFAI also pleaded the court to allow the formulators who do not have export orders to channelize their stocks through the three manufacturers who have export orders and export them. The three manufacturers are Hindustan Insecticides Limited, Excel Crop Care Limited and Coromandel International Limited.

The bench has given a two week deadline for the central government and the DYFI to respond to the interim application.