COMPENDIUM OF SUMMARIES OF JUDICIAL DECISIONS IN ENVIRONMENT RELATED CASES

INDIA

India - Radioactive Pollution of Dairy Products

DR. SHIVA RAO, SHANTA RAM WAGLE and others v. UNION OF INDLK and others

AIR 1988 SC 953
A P. SEN and L.M. SHARMA, JJ.

Introduction

A special leave petition was filed in the Supreme Court against the judgement and order of the High Court of Bombay, declining to issue a Writ of Mandamus, to restrain the respondents from releasing 7500 cartons of butter imported into India from Ireland, on the ground that the butter was contaminated by radioactive fallout from the explosion in the Chernobyl nuclear reactor.

Legal Framework

Constitution of India Article 226.

Held

The Supreme Court dismissed the petition following consideration of the Report submitted to the Court by a three man Committee of specialists which it appointed to consider the question whether "milk and dairy products and other food products containing man-made radio nuclides within permissible levels by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board imported on 27 August 1987, are safe and/or harmless for human consumption". The Committee was of the view that milk and the other dairy products in question were safe and harmless for human consumption.