The Supreme Court appointed joint committee was unable to submit its interim report on endosulfan on July 15 and asked for another eight weeks to prepare the report. On the other hand, the pesticide manufacturers and formulators association of India, one of the respondents in the case, pleaded with the court to give an immediate relief to them to allow exporting the pesticides, the stocks for which were already present with the manufacturers.
The eight weeks deadline for the Supreme Court appointed joint committee on endosulfan ended on July 13. The hearing of the case is scheduled for July 15.
Soon after the Supreme Court ordered the interim ban on endosulfan on May 13, the agriculture ministry issued letters to the different departments, the following day, for the compliance of the nation wide ban.
It was a shocker. Out of the 21 states that attended a meeting at the agriculture commissioner's office, 20 opposed the ban on endosulfan and this included Karnataka, that has already banned endosulfan in the state and Madhya Pradesh, whose agriculture minister had sent a letter to the centre supporting Kerala's ex chief minister VS Achuthanandan's call for a nationwide ban on endosulfan.
HIL's (Hindustan Insecticide Limited) licence to produce endosulfan was cancelled by the Kerala government on May 27. The Gujarat agriculture department too has seized the permit of nearly 80 endosulfan manufacturing and formulating units in the state.