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The Supreme Court on Monday refused to ban open field trials on genetically modified crops despite a court-appointed expert panel recommending a 10-year halt on them. Hearing a public interest litigation filed by anti-GM food activist Aruna Rodrigues, a two-judge bench of the apex court instead invited views of all the stakeholders on the expert panel's report. Rodrigues had sought the court's intervention to stop the field trials until a new set of regulatory conditions is enforced, as suggested by the expert panel. Her lawyer Prashant Bhushan argued that a ban was necessary as open field trials in the current form could lead to contamination of indigenous species and loss of bio-diversity.