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The battle of a multinational-versus-farmers over potato seeds came to an end on Friday, with PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt Ltd withdrawing cases against nine farmers filed in two Gujarat courts.
On Friday, PepsiCo sought an early hearing in the cases of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) infringement and applied to withdraw the law suits. It had filed cases against four potato farmers in the Commercial Court in Ahmedabad and against five farmers in the district court of Modasa (Sabarkantha).
The development comes after the American food multinational faced public anger and global embarrassment for slapping a ₹1 crore lawsuit against the farmers for allegedly growing the FL2027 or FC5 variety of potato. PepsiCo claimed exclusive rights to the variety under the PPV&FR Act, 2001. The variety is used to make its popular Lay's chips.
Farmers’ rights groups and civil society representatives retaliated with a call for a boycott of PepsiCo products.
Anand Yagnik, counsel appearing for the farmers, said that rarely do multinationals withdraw suits that too having litigated against ‘marginalised and downtrodden farmers.’
“This is the first instance where PepsiCo has withdrawn suits not only against the farmers of Sabarkantha but also against Aravalli and Banaskantha and with this withdrawal the ill-conceived initiative of PepsiCo to threaten farmers with litigation has come to an end,” Yagnik said in a statement.
Farmers’ rights groups hailed the development as a “victory of farmers” and stated that while PepsiCo India was taught a lesson in law by alert citizens, it is now the responsibility of the Government of India to pro-actively take up measures to uphold farmers’ rights.
In a statement after the early hearing in the courts, Kapil Shah, convenor of Beej Adhikar Manch said, “This development today in no way means that the public campaign is over. While the defendant farmers at least have the profit-hungry MNC off their back in court, the battle is only half won on the field. The Government of India had maintained an ominous silence on the legal situation in the country on farmers’ seed freedoms, taking cover of the matter being sub judice . Now it must make it amply clear that such litigation is not acceptable.”
The farmers have demanded an apology and compensation from the company for the harassment they were subjected to.
Meanwhile, PepsiCo India spokesperson reiterated its stand saying, “To safeguard the larger interest of farmers, PepsiCo India was compelled to take judicial recourse to protect its registered variety. PepsiCo from the very start had also offered an amicable settlement to farmers. After discussions with the Government, the company has agreed to withdraw cases against farmers. We are relying on the said discussions to find a long term and an amicable resolution of all issues around seed protection.”
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