The Supreme Court today banned the production, sale and use of controversial pesticide Endosulfan in the country for the next eight weeks, holding that human life is more important than anything else.
“Keeping in mind various judgements of this court under Article 21 (right to life and liberty) of the Constitution and particularly keeping in mind the precautionary principle we, hereby, direct and pass ad-interim order for immediate ban on production and use of Endosulfan all over India,” a bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia said.
The bench also directed the statutory authorities to freeze the production licences granted to the manufacturers of the controversial pesticide till its further order.
The bench during the hearing said that human life is more important than anything else.
The court passed its order on petition filed by CPIM”s youth wing Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) seeking country-wide ban on sale and production of Endosulfan in its present form or any other derivatives in the market.
DYFI had contended in its petition that a large section of people was directly affected because of the use of Endosulfan, already banned in 81 countries.
