The Centre’s approval for the environmental release of genetically modified (GM) mustard disregarded multiple regulatory requirements, a coalition of activists claimed on Friday, questioning the Centre’s assertions in the Supreme Court that the approval had followed “detailed procedure in law”.

The Coalition for a GMFree India has alleged that India’s Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) had not complied with even the limited regulatory guidelines and protocols for environmental risk assessment of the GM mustard ahead of the approval.

The GEAC, a regulatory panel under the Union environment ministry, had in October 2022 approved supervised environmental release of the GM mustard developed by scientists at the University of Delhi South Campus (UDSC) for field studies and seed development.

The coalition — a group of environmental activists and farmers campaigning against GM crops — has alleged that the GEAC allowed the UDSC scientists to design some protocols, overlooked violations during GM-mustard testing and prescribed tests that were later either discarded or dropped.

“The GEAC prescribed tests on GM mustard, but when the applicants sought exemption, kept agreeing to requests for exemption and changed its own recommendations repeatedly,” the coalition said in a document released on Friday.

“Is this (a) robust regulatory regime?” The coalition said the document was a “public response” to what it has described as “false assertions” by the Centre in the Supreme Court that the approval for the environmental release had followed “detailed procedure in law” “in accordance with guidelines”.

The Supreme Court is hearing petitions opposing the release of GM crops in the country. During one such hearing, the attorney-general on behalf of the Centre had argued that the court should look into the question of whether the process envisioned under the law has been followed.

A senior scientist who had led the efforts to develop the GM mustard said the coalition was trying to “split hair” and had disregarded the extensive tests done on the GM mustard.

“This is ideology versus science — the position of the people in the coalition is to keep India GM free, no matter what,” said Deepak Pental, a plant biologist at the UDSC who had led the two-decades research programme to develop the GM mustard.

The coalition, citing examples in the document released on Friday, said the GM mustard testing involved several mandatory studies on pollen from only one location, instead of a minimum of three locations prescribed in the guidelines.

The GM mustard developers have claimed the plants would enhance the country’s mustard yields. But the coalition has said that the GEAC overlooked concerns among experts that the GM mustard plants had not been evaluated against existing high-yielding mustard hybrids.

The coalition has cited minutes of GEAC meetings to allege that although the GEAC prescribed several tests, including GM mustard seed feeding tests on chicken, rabbits and goats, the scientists sought exemption and the GEAC deferred decisions on the proposals for tests.

“There is no record of exemption — what happened to these studies?” the coalition has asked in the document. The GEAC in March 2018 had also sought the field studies on soil microbial diversity but in July 2018 agreed to an exemption from such studies sought by the University of Delhi scientists.

The coalition has said GM mustard has not even undergone the limited testing that GM brinjal had undergone about a decade ago, citing at least seven tests to evaluate safety and other features done on GM brinjal but not done on GM mustard.

The GEAC had approved GM brinjal but then environment minister Jairam Ramesh had in 2010 stalled its release.