By: ICN Bureau
Last updated : August 13, 2025 10:53 am
CCFI sought quashing of the impugned Notification as a blatant abuse of statutory powers
After several adjournments, Punjab insecticides ban issue, was finally listed on 30th July 2025 when Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI) appeared along with Senior Advocate at High Court, Chandigarh.
During the hearing, CCFI presented detailed submissions challenging the Notification dated 10.05.2025 issued by the State Government under Section 27(1) of the Insecticides Act, 1968, banning the use, sale and distribution of 11 commonly (Hexaconazole was added later) used agro-chemical formulations on Basmati rice for 60 days in Punjab.
It was argued that the Notification was arbitrary and illegal as it was issued solely on speculative risk without any supporting investigation, laboratory reports, or data indicating exceedance of MRLs as fixed by FSSAI. No details on consignments rejected or traces of which molecules found, remained unanswered all these years.
Multiple previous notifications banning similar products were already under challenge and were being issued repeatedly just before the sowing season, with limited window of application, in a manner that defeats judicial review and the repeated exercise of the emergent powers by the State of Punjab, year after year, was wholly outside the scope of Section 27(1).
Accordingly, CCFI sought quashing of the impugned Notification as a blatant abuse of statutory powers and violate of the rights of the petitioner and the agrochemical industry at large.
In view of the above submissions, the Hon’ble Court had, on the previous hearing, directed the State of Punjab and UOI to seek instructions on the pending report and the reasons for delay on the part of the State of Punjab in sending the report to UOI, despite the ban being repeatedly invoked since 2018.
To this, the State of Punjab again, today, reverted to justifying their arbitrary actions without placing on record any reasonable grounds for delay on their part. The UOI, on the other hand, handed over the Minutes of the 465th Meeting of the RC dt. 10.07.2025, as per which it was apparently indicated that the Centre had not found any safety concerns regarding the use of insecticides in question. It was further mentioned that these insecticides were being used pan India, on the basis of statutory registration.
The Hon’ble Court specifically took note of this submission of the UOI and reproduced the following in the order passed: “RC observed that the toxicological data referred to by the Punjab Government pertains to submissions made by the manufacturers at the time of registration, which were duly evaluated before granting registration, in accordance with safety considerations during the registration process by the designated authorities.”
After hearing submissions, the Hon’ble Court was pleased to grant stay on the imposition of the Notification under challenge by specifically recording and noting that such act on the part of the State of Punjab, especially in view of the statement of the UOI, is arbitrary and in excess of its powers under the statute.
Ashish Kothari represented CCFI legal team and Ms Nirmala Pathrawal was involved in the entire proceedings.
CropLife India also welcomed the decision. “CropLife India respects the decision of the Hon’ble Punjab & Haryana High Court. We believe that the challenges facing Basmati rice exports can be addressed through long-term, sustainable and science-based solutions. The success of GrapeNet — which brought down export rejections to zero since its introduction in 2008-09 — stands as a proven model. Since 2020, CropLife India has been advocating for the establishment of a Basmati Research Centre in Punjab, inspired by this success. The recent workshop organised by the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of Punjab, on 16th April 2025 — ‘From Field to Fork: Ensuring Basmati Purity through Comprehensive Traceability’ — was a pivotal step forward.CropLife India remains fully committed to supporting the creation of Basmati.Net, a system that can secure Punjab’s place in the global Basmati market,” said CropLife India's spokesperson