The Delhi High Court has closed a public interest litigation aimed at improving, augmenting and strengthening the existing forensic testing infrastructure available to all forensic science laboratories (FSLs) engaged in analysis of Shahtoosh shawls suspected.

A division bench including Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela took note of the Union Government’s statement that the Export and Promotion of Handicrafts Council (EPCH) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, for the creation of a “Pashmina Certification Center” for transparent trade of Pashmina products.

The Union government’s counsel also told the Court that the tested Pashmina products are labeled with a unique identification tag traceable with individual e-certificates downloadable from the WII server, enabling smooth trade of these products on national and international markets.

Creating such a facility in India was a game changer for smooth trading of authentic Pashmina products with authentic and tamper-proof certification from WII, the lawyer added.

Furthermore, it has also been argued that due to the intensive processing of finished Pashmina products, extraction and DNA testing were not consistent and could only give 40% success compared to the previous one. samples tested.

The Court was also informed that DNA testing for finished Pashmina products could not be recommended due to its limitations, namely the possibility of excessive false negative reporting.

“In view of the aforesaid statements, which are placed on record, the present application is closed,” the bench said.

The plea was made by three unions of Pashmina shawl exporters, manufacturers, traders and artisans. It sought to improve the infrastructure of FSLs engaged in wildlife forensics and further demanded modern “scanning electron microscope” technology and DNA testing procedures in laboratories.

The petitioners’ grievance was that customs and criminal proceedings were being initiated against those involved in the Pashmina trade on the basis that their consignments intended for export contained items “suspected to be shahtoosh guard hairs”. Such actions have a negative impact on the industry as a whole, the plea adds.

The PIL further said that many exporters facing proceedings, including the petitioners, have countless experiences of conflicting results from the government’s own forensic reports.

He said there were only two forensic laboratories in Dehradun and Kolkata, both of which use optical microscopy to examine consignments suspected of being ‘shahtoosh’.

“”It should be noted that at present, the light microscopy morphological testing method, which is the default method used by Indian wildlife forensics, is recognized both nationally and globally to be obsolete , technologically outdated and very prone to false information. -positive results. The physical characteristics of Pashmina and Shahtoosh fibers are similar in terms of physical properties and tangibility, making it almost impossible to distinguish them on the basis of morphological characteristics, especially using the standard method of optical microscopy,” the PIL argued. .

It was also claimed that there is no foolproof method or means by which exporters or traders can be sure that the product coming from artisans across the country is purely Pashmina.

The petition was forwarded by advocates Tanveer Ahmed Mir, Kartik Venu and Shikhar Sharma.

Title: ASSOCIATION OF PASHMINA EXPORTERS AND MANUFACTURERS & ORS. v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

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