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Court curb

the Andhra Pradesh government's appeal for an injunction against us biotech major Monsanto may fail in the face of weak anti-monopoly law.

The state government had filed its appeal seeking to restrain Monsanto from charging exorbitant prices from farmers for Bt cotton seeds, before the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (mrtpc).

 In a hearing held on April 3, 2006, Monsanto quoted the recommendations of the Sachhar Committee to claim that the mrtpc did not hold any power to grant an injunction against it. The Sachhar committee had recommended that only the state governments concerned and the Union government could pass any such order, it said. But the Andhra government contended that under section 12 (a) of mrtp Act, the commission is empowered to grant relief as an interim injunction.

During the argument, Monsanto displayed a packet of gm seeds produced by Hyderabad-based jk Agrigentics and said, Domestic companies are also charging high prices.' But jk Agrigenetics refutes this. "The price of our seed, developed with technology from iit Kharagpur, is Rs 800 less than what Monsanto and its sub-licencees charge for the same packet,' says S V Rao, vice-president, research, jk Agrigenetics. The Andhra government too says that Monsanto happened to be the sole company selling bt cottonseeds till March 2006. And it has exploited the farmers and continues to do so with its monopoly fees. It has reduced its technology fees just a month ago, after Andhra Pradesh approached the mrtpc.

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