LexDR. SHIVARAO SHANTARAM WAGLE & ORS. versus UNION OF INDIA & ORS.
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' . --!.. DR. SHIVARAO SHANTARAM WAGLE & ORS. v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS. MARCH 8, 1988 IA.P. SEN AND L.M. SHARMA, JJ.] Seeking brm on release of Irish. butter for public distribution and human consumption on the ground that the butter was contaminated by nuclear fall-out after Chernobyl disaster . A B This special leave petition was directed against the judgment and C order of the Bombay High Court, declining to issue a writ in the nature of Mandamuj and other appropriate writ, directions or orders, direct- ing the respondents to forbear from releasing 7500 cartons (200 MT) of Irish butter imported into India for operation Flood Programme, supplied to the Greater Bombay Milk Scheme by respondent No. : , D National Dairy Development Board, on the ground that the butter was contaminated by nuclear fall-<iut. Soon after the Chernobyl disaster, when it was realised that the imported milk and food products particularly from the EEC countries had the possibility of radio-active contamination, the Bhabha Atomic E Research Centre took up the matter with the respective agencies and advised them to get the representative samples for radio-active analysis before releasing them for public distribution in India. This Court appointed a Committee of three experts, F (i) Professor M.G.K. Menon, Member Planning Commission & Scien- tific Advisor to the Prime Minister (2) Dr. P .K. Iyenger, Director Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay and (3) G.V.K. Rao, Vice-- chairman, Economic & Planning Council, Govt. of Karnataka, Banga- lore to give its opinion on the question whether milk and dairy products and other food products containing man-made radionuclides within G permissible levels fixed by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board on 27th August, 1987, were safe and/or harmless for human consumption. The Committee of Experts examineri the question in depth and by its report dt. February 19, 1988, expressed its opinion that the consign- ment of the imported butter was safe and harmless for human con- sumption. A I A 116 SUPREME COURT REPORTS 11988] 3 S.C.R. Dismissing the special leave petition, the Court, i HELD: There was no substance in any of the objections formu- lated by the petitioners. In its most recent recommendations, the Inter- national Commission on Radiological Protection observed that 'limits for. the inhalation or ingestion of radio-active material depend on the B concentration of those materials in limiting target organs'. The petitioners showed different permissible limits in different countries as -..\ France, UK, E.E.C., and Australia at 3700, 2000, 370 and iOO. These c D E F G are the limits of radioactivity prescribed by these countries for imported foodstuffs. As against these, the prescribed limit for India 1 ' admittedly is 40 (bq!I). II20C-E] '-f The analysis of the imported butter by the Bhabha Atomic Re- search Centre, which according to the Committee of Experts must be treated to be accurate, showed the presence in the samples of imported butter of CS-i37 at limits ranging from 0.6 Bq/kg to 2.9 Bq/kg. The petitioners relied upon letters sent by some internationally known scien- tists including Nobel laureates tending to show that it was desirable to avoid foodstuffs containing low level radio-activity which, according to them, might in the long run prove to be hazardous. Those letters were in general terms and only represented a particular school of thought. Surely, the Committee of Experts comprising two eminent scientists and an equally well-known Agro-Economist, was well aware of this point of view. I 120E-G I The Court could not accept the contention of the petitioners that the Court should give a direction that all articles of foodstuffs using the imported butter should carry a label 'Manufactured out of Butter Imported from the EEC countries.' I l20G-H] The Court shared the opinion of this Court expressed in the Vincent's case, where a direction was sought in public interest for banning the import, manufacture, sale and distributiOn of certain drugs recommended by the Drugs Consultative Committee and this Court had observed that having regard to the magnitude, complexity and technical nature of the enquiry involved in the matter and keeping in view the far-reaching implications of the total ban of certain medicines for which the petitioner had prayed, it must be indicated that a judicial proceeding of the nature initiated was n
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