Dhaka: The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a High Court verdict that ordered the government not to distribute the remaining amount of the wheat imported from Brazil among any organisation or department as the HC had considered the wheat unfit for consumption.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order after rejecting a plea moved by the government challenging the HC verdict.

After Thursday’s SC order, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters that the government can now distribute the remaining wheat to any organisation if it is willing to take it.

The High Court on 26 July asked the government not to distribute the remaining amount of the wheat imported from Brazil among any organisation or department until further order of the court.

Earlier on 9 July, the Appellate Division stayed the observations of the High Court till 26 July that the government cannot force anyone to accept the substandard wheat imported from Brazil spending Tk 400 crore.

On 8 July, the High court maintained that the government cannot compel anyone to accept the substandard wheat imported from Brazil.

The HC also ordered the authorities concerned to take back the wheat if anyone wants to return it distributed earlier among police, BGB, Ansar, prison, dealers and mills under government programmes such as Food for Work (kabikha) and Test Relief (TR).

On 29 June, lawyer Pavel Miah filed the writ petition with the High Court seeking its directives to investigate the allegation of rotten wheat import from Brazil.

Later, the HC bench issued a rule asking the Director General of the food department to explain within 72 hours whether the wheat imported from Brazil is fit for human consumption.

On 5 July, the HC bench fixed 8 July for hearing on the petition after the Director General of food department submitted a report to it in compliance with its earlier order.

In the report submitted through Deputy Attorney General Tapash Kumar Biswas, the court was told that the samples of imported wheat were collected from 57 food silos in different districts through executive magistrates and those were tested at the laboratory.

The wheat was found to be under the acceptance limit of the agreement, it said.

Recently, the government has imported some 2 lakh metric tonnes of wheat worth Tk 400 crore from Brazil and those were being distributed under government programmes such as food for work (kabikha) and Test Relief (TR), and among police, BGB, Ansar, prison, dealers and mills.

There is an allegation that the imported Brazilian wheat is rotten and not consumable. The Director General of food himself questioned the quality of the imported wheat as the Brazilian Agriculture Ministry and authorities of related departments did not provide any certificate in this regard.

However, then DG of the directorate Sarwar Khan ordered the release of the wheat from Chittagong port after knowing all these matters, said the reports.

Besides, Food minister Qamrul Islam claimed that the imported wheat is consumable.