The court also directed the ministry of agriculture to come up with long-term measures to counter the issue by next date of hearing - April 16.
The court's direction came after amicus curiae Sanjay Jain informed it that 5.3 percent of vegetables and 0.5 percent of fruits sold in Delhi had pesticide residue above the prescribed maximum residue limit (MRL).
The court noted that "by one calculation, the entire population of Delhi was consuming food items with pesticide residue beyond permissible limits".
The report claimed pesticide components such as chlordane, endrin, heptachlor, ethyl and parathion are used in growing number of vegetables which have the potential to cause serious neurological problems, kidney damage, skin diseases, cancer and other diseases.
In the report, the expert committee had recommended ways and means to minimise pesticide level like using cloth towel or paper towel to clean dry produce, scrubbing firm fruits and vegetables like melons, carrots and potatoes, and washing in clean running, preferably drinking water, etc.
The high court had earlier taken suo motu cognisance on an NGO report that said the amount of pesticides used by farmers in India was as much as 750 times higher than European standards.
Updated on: March 05, 2014 23:54 IST
