John B. Judis

The MNC's seed partner doesn't want details of its safety test in the public domain.

A case filed in the Delhi High Court will decide the fate of exclusive data shared by companies with the government. Companies, especially those in the pharmaceutical and agri-chemicals businesses, don’t want such data to be made public in order to protect their commercial interests.

Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd (Mahyco), the seed partner of multinational agro-biotech major Monsanto Corporation, has moved the Delhi High Court against a Central Information Commission order seeking details of the safety test data generated during clinical trials of its genetically modified (GM) brinjal, the first GM edible crop to be introduced in India.

Mahyco had submitted the data with the department of biotechnology for regulatory clearances. Divya Raghunandan, a representative of global environmental watchdog Greenpeace, had sought this information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The department turned down the plea on the grounds that the information sought by Greenpeace included “commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party”.