Top court stays HC order on wheat imported from Brazil

A High Court order against forcing imported Brazilian wheat has been stayed by the top court for two weeks.

Court Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 26 July 2015, 06:58 AM
Updated : 26 July 2015, 11:54 AM

A four-member appeals bench, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, issued the stay on Sunday after hearing a state plea, while also directing it to file a petition with the Appellate Division.

In addition, the court directed the government not to distribute the grain in the meantime, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told bdnews24.com.

The Brazilian wheat has already been supplied to police, BGB, and Ansar units, besides dealers and mills.

It has also been provided for Test relief and Food-for-Work programmes.   

Bangladesh imported 200,000 tonnes of wheat from Brazil at a cost of Tk 4 billion. A daily ran a report, claiming it was “rotten and unfit for human consumption”.

On Jun 29, the High Court had sought a government report on whether the wheat was fit of human consumption following a petition seeking a probe into the import.

The plea, filed by lawyer Pavel Miah, demanded the testing of the wheat quality by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI) and the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute.

He also sought a probe by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to see if the wheat was substandard.

A food department report, submitted to the court on Jul 5, cited earlier tests by the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Agriculture Research Institute and the Dhaka University, which had cleared the grain for human consumption.

Although the food department report said the wheat was fit for humans, the High Court, in an order on Jul 8, said the government must take back the controversial wheat if any recipient wanted to hand it back.

The food department moved the Supreme Court’s Chamber Judge to stay the High Court order, when it was forwarded to the Appellate Division.

On Sunday, the appeals bench headed by the chief justice heard the matter and stayed the High Court’s verdict for two weeks. It also ordered the government to file a leave to appeal petition.

Out of the 205,128 tonnes of the Brazilian wheat, 174,926 tonnes have already been distributed over the last four months, the food department had earlier told the High Court.