# SC urged to list contempt plea over GM rice release 2026-10-12T10:01:21+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets The Supreme Court on Monday, 12 October, was urged to urgently list contempt petitions alleging the Centre violated its 2024 judgment on genetically modified crops after the alleged approval of herbicide-tolerant GM basmati rice for cultivation. Lawyer Prashant Bhushan told a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant that the variety, branded 'RobiNOweed', was commercially released in May 2024, while gene-edited varieties 'Kamla' and Pusa DST Rice 1 were released in May 2025. Bhushan argued the contempt petitions filed in 2025 by activist Aruna Rodrigues are unrelated to a separate reference on GM mustard and can be heard by a regular contempt bench. The plea seeks proceedings against senior officials for alleged wilful disobedience of the court's July 2024 direction to formulate a national GM crop policy through consultation before any release. The bench is yet to decide on listing. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Both sources carried identical copy, reporting lawyer Prashant Bhushan's urgent request to the Supreme Court to list contempt petitions over the alleged approval of GM basmati rice. The Economic Times and The Hindu Business Line each gave verbatim coverage of Bhushan's submissions, the 2024 split-judgment context, and the allegations against the Centre. Neither outlet added independent reporting or editorial framing. The uniform coverage leaves the narrative driven entirely by Bhushan's claims before the bench. The next procedural step now rests with the Chief Justice's bench, which heard the mention on Monday, 12 October. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral - economictimes.indiatimes.com (neutral report) Straight news agency-style copy with no editorial slant - thehindubusinessline.com (neutral report) Verbatim wire copy, no independent framing This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Tags: Aruna Rodrigues, Basmati rice, GM crops, Prashant Bhushan, Supreme Court Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/sc-urged-to-list-contempt-plea-over-gm-rice-release/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/sc-urged-to-list-contempt-plea-over-gm-rice-release/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/