Court reserves orders on royalty imposed on BT cotton seeds

Hyderabad: Justice M S Ramachandra Rao of the High Court at Hyderabad on Wednesday reserved orders on the question of royalty on per packet of BT cotton seeds. The government of Telangana State had levied Rs 50 on each packet as royalty on the seeds in May 2015.

Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) Pvt Ltd approached the court questioning the action of the State government in imposing the said costs. The court had stayed the government order in May 2015. Senior Counsel C S Vaidyanathan appearing for the State government contended that it was the duty of the State to protect the interests of the farmers by controlling the monopoly of the company in fixing selling price of BT Cotton seeds.

C V Mohan Reddy, senior counsel appearing for the company, submitted to the court that the government had no power to fix the royalty and the Agriculture Department had acted beyond its jurisdiction and issued the said government order by fixing the royalty.