India Tomorrow
Nainital, Dec 29: The Uttarakhand High Court, while rejecting the arguments of Yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s firm Divya Pharmacy, has ordered it to share profits with the local and indigenous communities, as required by the Fair and Equitable Benefit Sharing (FEBS) objectives of the Biodiversity Act 2002.
Ramdev’s firm had challenged the orders of the Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board (UBB) asking it to share profits with the locals under the provisions of the law. The company contended that the provision was meant for foreign firms.
Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia of the High Court, however, upheld the order passed by UBB and affirmed the powers of the State Biodiversity Board (SBB) to impose FEPB, ruling, “… this Court is of the opinion that SBB has got powers to demand Fair and Equitable Benefit Sharing from the petitioner, in view of its statutory function given under Section 7 read with Section 23 of the Act and the NBA has got powers to frame necessary regulations in view of Section 21 of the Act.”
The biodiversity regulation 2 of the 2014 Regulations says: “When the biological resources are accessed for commercial utilization or the bio-survey and bio-utilization leads to commercial utilization, the applicant shall have the option to pay the benefit sharing ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 % at the following graded percentages of the annual gross ex-factory sale of the product which shall be worked out based on the annual gross ex-factory sale minus government taxes as given below:-
The HC ruled: “The above provisions in the Regulations provide for a benefit sharing obligation, for any person, who wants to have access to “biological resources”, which is a certain percentage of the purchase price. The petitioner which is an Indian entity is also obliged to pay an amount as FEBS to the SBB.”
The court held that it was a fact that biological resources constitute the main ingredient and raw materials in the manufacture of ayurvedic and nutraceutical products of the firm.
As per the court order, Ramdev’s Divya Pharmacy will have to share Rs. 2 crore out of its Rs. 421-crore profit with the local farmers of the raw product.
