The HC direction came on a petition filed by Divya Pharmacy, owned by the Divya Yog Mandir Trust that is run by yoga guru Baba Ramdev.
In a judgement that could have far-reaching impact, the Uttarakhand High Court has ruled that ayurvedic companies that used plants and herbs as ingredients in their products without paying a penny to the government for use of biological reserves will have to compensate the government.
The HC direction came on a petition filed by Divya Pharmacy, owned by the Divya Yog Mandir Trust that is run by yoga guru Baba Ramdev. Both Divya Pharmacy and Patanjali, which produces its medicines and ayurvedic products at Haridwar, received a demand notice from the Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board (UBB) to deposit a sum of Rs 10.4 crore as fair and equitable benefit sharing (FEBS) for using biological reserves under the Biological Diversity Act 2002. This amount was just 0.5 per cent of the total sale put together of these two companies for 2014-15. Similar notices were issued to other ayurvedic product-based companies. Divya had challenged the notice in court, while others keenly awaited the judgment.
Currently, no Indian company manufacturing ayurveda products pays FEBS to any state boards as the state biodiversity boards do not have power under the 2002 Act to collect any compensatory fee. Moreover, at the time of setting up business, Indian companies are exempted from seeking approval from the national regulator (National Biodiversity Authority).
Not convinced by the argument, however, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia of the Uttarakhand HC said, "Biological resources are definitely the property of a nation where they are geographically located, but these are also the property, in a manner of speaking, of the indigenous and local communities."
Wondering how an Indian company could escape paying compensation, despite exploiting the natural biodiversity resources, the judge directed, "The ambiguities in the national statute have to be seen in the light of the international treaties (Nagoya Protocol 2010) which made no distinction between a foreign or Indian entity" when it came to sharing of benefits of biological resources.
The Court then directed the companies to pay up their share of FEBS and upheld the power of the State Boards to collect payment from Indian entities.
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Not convinced by the argument, however, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia of the Uttarakhand HC said, "Biological resources are definitely the property of a nation where they are geographically located, but these are also the property, in a manner of speaking, of the indigenous and local communities."
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