New Delhi: The Supreme Court today (Feb 23, 2004) directed the Union Government to file objections before the European Patent Office (EPO) to challenge the grant of patent on a wheat variety to US agri major Monsanto.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice V N Khare and Justice S H Kapadia also asked the Centre to file within two weeks its response to a petition filed by Research Foundation for Science and Technology and environmental activist Vandana Shiva.

The Bench directed the Government to file objections before EPO when the counsel for the petitioner Pinky Anand said that the Government had not taken proper steps in this regard. The Government assured the court that necessary objections would be filed before the EPO.

The Government had said that the issue was raised in Parliament recently and the concerned Minister had clarified that the variety on which Monsanto was getting patent was to be used only in Europe and had nothing to do with the Indian variety.

The court on February 13 had issued notices to Ministries of Agriculture, Commerce, Law, Industry and Environment on the public interest litigation (PIL).

The PIL had pointed out that in 1990, Unilever applied for a patent of wheat derived from traditional Indian variety "Nap Hal" before European Patent Office (EPO). In 1998, Unilever's wheat division was acquired by Monsanto and five years later the patent on wheat was granted to Monsanto.