India Cancels Paraquat Dichloride Registrations In Final National Order

The Registration Committee must call back every certificate granted for paraquat dichloride under section 9 of the Insecticides Act, 1968. A person who fails to return a certificate may face action under the Act. State governments must take the steps they consider appropriate under the Act and its rules to implement the order.

The government says it considered objections to its earlier notice, recommendations from an expert committee and consultation with the Registration Committee. It found that paraquat dichloride use presents risks to human beings and animals requiring immediate action. No concentration threshold, use exemption, existing-stock transition or grace period appears in the four operative clauses.

Final Paraquat Order Is Narrower In Wording Than The Draft Notice

The July notice, S.O. 3800(E), declared an intention to prohibit manufacture, import, transport, distribution, sale and use. The final order's operative text instead prohibits registration and cancels certificates. It should therefore not be quoted as though the final clauses reproduce every element of the proposal.

In practice, cancellation removes the legal registration basis on which covered products enter and remain in the regulated pesticide market, and state enforcement steps may affect possession, supply and use. That consequence is an analytical inference from the registration regime and the state-implementation clause, not an express standalone ban in S.O. 5234(E).

The distinction matters for stock handling and enforcement communications. Certificate holders face a clear, immediate recall duty. Manufacturers, importers, dealers and users should obtain state-specific instructions before destroying, exporting, returning or moving stocks because the national order does not set a uniform disposal or sell-through procedure.

Implications Across The Pesticide Supply Chain

Registrants should stop relying on cancelled certificates, preserve correspondence and arrange their return. Supply-chain teams should quarantine affected stock while checking state directions, contracts and waste controls. Growers and procurement teams should confirm alternatives and avoid treating an existing label or historical certificate as current authority.

Foresight's pesticides tracker provides the wider product framework. The recent glyphosate classification update also illustrates why substance hazard decisions and product market authorisations must be kept legally distinct.

Practical call to action: Quarantine affected inventory, confirm certificate-return instructions and obtain written state guidance before any further supply, movement or disposal decision.