Director of Customs and Registrar of Pesticides noticed to appear in court

By T. Farook Thajudeen

The Colombo High Court noticed the Director of Customs and the Registrar of Pesticides to appear in court on 24 January 2012 to inquire into an alleged complaint against the Registrar of Pesticides for ordering the Director of Customs to the release to the market the harmful arsenic and mercury contaminated pesticides.  

Counsel Ravindranath Dabare appearing with Indu Wattege on behalf of the petitioner, Centre for Environmental Justice submitted that according to the letter issued by the Registrar of Pesticides to the Director of Customs on 6 December had instructed for the release of arsenic and mercury contaminated pesticides to the market.

The counsel further submitted that according to the Gazette Notification dated June 29 2011 any fertiliser that is imported to the country should not contain arsenic in what ever quantity and that some of the pesticides that were imported had arsenic and mercury contaminated pesticides.

He said it had been established that absorbing arsenic and mercury to the human body would lead to immediate and delayed complications on human beings.

He said that according to the laboratory tests carried out by the Office of the Registrar of Pesticides, some of the fertilisers that were imported and held in the port’s custody are contaminated with a heavy amount of arsenic and mercury.

However, the first respondents Registrar of Pesticides, did not took into account the fact that the small amount of arsenic or mercury is detrimental to the human beings thus ordering the first respondent by the second respondent to release the pesticides is illegal and therefore, to order the first respondent to seek the advice of the National Toxicology and Toxinology Centre on the pesticides before releasing them to the market.

He said by acting only on the advice of the Registrar of Pesticides would lead for disagreeable results.

The petitioner states that since the second respondent had informed the first respondent their findings on the pesticides, to issue a writ of mandamus on the first respondent to initiate steps to examine the pesticides for arsenic and mercury and to issue a writ of certiorari declaring that the order made by the second respondent on the first respondent to release the pesticides to the market is void.

On hearing the submissions and on perusing the petition and the annexed documents the High Court Judge Kumudini Wickramasinghe issued notice on the respondents to appear before court on 24 January.