According to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) interim order, Indian seed companies that use global agriculture firm Monsanto's technology will not need to destroy Bt cotton seeds, patent lines and germ plasm once their contract ends. The domestic companies had filed an anti-competition case against Monsanto for the inclusion of such causes in the license agreement these have with the global giant.

If the seeds, parent-lines and germ plasm, containing the technology of Monsanto are destroyed according to the post-termination obligations, it may not be possible for the Indian seed companies to restore the same at a later point of time. Thus, such destruction would cause irreparable and irretrievable harm to the latter and needs to be prevented, said CCI in its order.

This order would be applicable only after it is approved by the Delhi High Court. However, the CCI prevented the Indian companies from selling any seeds manufactured using Monsanto technology after November 30, 2015. The companies have also been asked to keep a proper record of these seeds. As per Article 9 of the sub-license agreements with Monsanto, whenever the agreement is terminated, the Indian seed companies have to immediately cease selling or distributing the seeds, destroy all the seeds, destroy the parent lines or other cotton germ plasm.

Earlier, Monsanto had terminated the sub-license agreements with three Indian companies - Nuziveedu Seeds, Prabhat Agri Biotech and Pravardhan Seeds - on 14 November last year. After filing an anti-competition complaint on 15 December last year, the Indian seed companies moved an application on 22 December asking interim relief.