The Supreme Court has asked a group of farmers from Karnataka to file its reply to petitions filed by Mahyco Seeds Ltd which sought direction for quashing of the National Consumer Commission's order awarding compensation of Rs 5,000 per acre for cotton crop failure due to supply of defective cotton seeds.
Three years back Chamatkar cotton seeds, supplied by Mahyco Seeds Ltd, sown in 20,000 acres in North Karnataka, failed putting thousands of farmers in distress.
A bench headed by Justice C K Thakker admitted the plea of the Company and tagged along the matter with other matters pending adjudication before it.
The farmers, who had no crop insurance, had filed petitions before the Consumer Courts in the state. While the company blames the crop failure on the farmer's choice of time (dry land) to sow the seeds
Mahyco said the Chamatkar cotton crops had failed because the complainants did not adopt correct agricultural practices.
According to the petitions, the report of the agricultural officer and the certificate from the village accountant could not be relied upon as there were no findings arriving at the conclusion that the seeds were defective.
Seeds not faulty
It further stated that the District Consumer Forum, State Consumer Commission and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission failed to appreciate that seeds were duly tested in its quality control laboratory before marketing and genetic purity results were found to be above 98 percent and thus the seeds could not be faulty.
The National Commission had dismissed the company's appeal holding that there were sufficient indications to prove that the seeds were not of the expected quality.
 But the Karnataka State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Bangalore, had asked Mahyco to pay compensation at the rate of Rs 5,000 per acre to farmers for supplying of defective seeds.
The Karnataka government had paid compensation of crores of rupees to the cotton growers in Haveri district, Ranebennur, Hirekerur and Byadgi.