25 September 2003 – The Supreme Court today asked the Union environment ministry to immediately issue a notification naming the 29 hazardous chemicals, the import of which have been banned.

The government had prohibited their import in May last year, but the necessary notification was not issued. The ban order also did not name the prohibited chemical wastes.

The court further ordered that the notification be sent to the commerce ministry for amending the Exim Policy 2002-07.

The last Exim Policy had listed the hazardous wastes, but their names had been dropped from the present policy.

The bench, comprising Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice B N Agrawal, was hearing a petition filed by the Research Foundation for Science alleging that developed countries were dumping chemical wastes in India.

Shipments of zinc ash, zinc waste and scrap, lead waste, lead ash and scrap batteries regularly find their way to India. These chemical wastes are then recycled here.

The poisonous materials pose a health hazard for Indian labourers, who fail to take precautions while handling them during the recycling process.

In 1997, the court had passed an order imposing strict guidelines on the distribution of these chemical wastes. As a result, the importers have vanished.

These wastes are now choking normal activity at the ports, which do not have enough funds to dispose them, according to the Container Corporation of India.