The Hindu / Wednesday, April 21, 1999 / By Our Legal Correspondent
NEW DELHI, APRIL 20. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) writ petition has been filed in the Supreme Court by the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE) through its Director, Dr. Vandana Shiva, along with four other organisations challenging the constitutionality of the Patents (Amendment) Act, 1999.
The other co-petitioners are the Lok Shakti Abhiyan through its Patron and former Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr. Rabi Ray, the Bhartiya Kissan Union (Ambavat), the People's Union for Civil Liberty (PUCL) and the Azadi Bachao Andolan.
The Act has been challenged as being "totally against the public interest, public health, national interest and the Constitution." Even the 167th Report of the Law Commission of India on the Patents (Amendment) Bill, 1998 was not considered/debated in Parliament, the petition contended. The report had drawn attention of the Government to the Exemption Clauses in the Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property rights(TRIPS), pointing out that these provisions permit India to claim exemptions from TRIPs on the grounds of public health, public interest and public order.
The impugned Act would seriously affect the biodiversity of the country which the Government undertook to protect by bringing in the Biodiversity Act, the petition pleaded and submitted that, for example, under the Act, even the biopirate of our biodiversity and indigenous knowledge can get an EMR (Exclusive Marketing Rights) in our own country, the petition contended.
