The Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and comprising Justices A.S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, hase suspended the implementation of the three central farm legislations until further orders. The bench has also directed the formation of a committee to understand the ground situation better.
The Bench has suggested Bhupinder Singh Mann (National President of Bhartiya Kisan Union), Ashok Gulati (Infosys chair professor for Agriculture at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations), Dr. Pramod Kumar Joshi (former Director of National Academy of Agricultural Research Management) and Shivkeri Sangathna’s President Anil Dhanawat as committee members to resolve the issues between the Government and the protesting farmers, tweeted LiveLaw.
The CJI reportedly said, “Every person who is genuinely interested in solving the problem is expected to go before the Committee. The Committee will not punish you or pass any orders. It will submit a report to us. We will consider the opinion of the organisations. We are forming the committee so that we have a clearer picture.”
CJI turns to the Attorney General :
“We believe in the Committee and we are going to constitute it. This Committee will be the part of judicial proceedings”, CJI tells AG.#FarmersProtests #SupremeCourt #FarmLaws
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) January 12, 2021
The Bench reiterated that all aggrieved people have to approach the Committee for a solution or they can agitate indefinitely. Chief Justice Bobde remarked, “We don’t want to hear an argument that farmers will not go to the committee. We are looking to solve the problem. If you want to agitate indefinitely, you can.” The Chief Justice emphasised on the significance of the Committee as he was told by the farmer’s representative that they are not willing to appear before any Committee and they just want the laws to be repealed.
Senior Counsel Harish Salve, appearing for the Government also submitted that the impugned laws do not provide for selling of farmers’ land and told the Bench that the Attorney General KK Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta can assure that the concerns over dismantling of Minimum Support Price (MSP) and sale of land are unfounded.
Salve : Two things are causing concern – 1) Whether MSPs will be dismantled. 2)Whether lands will be sold.
The AG and SG can assure that these concerns are unfounded. MSPs will not be dismantled and no lands will be sold off.#FarmersProtests #SupremeCourt #FarmLaws
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) January 12, 2021
The top court also refused to entertain the farmers’ prayer of requesting the Prime Minister to hold negotiations with them. The CJI reportedly said, “We cannot ask the Prime Minister to go. He is not a party here.”
Senior Advocate Vikas Singh submitted before the Bench that the farmers would need a more prominent place like the Ramlila Maidan or the Boat club to agitate for visibility to which the CJI reportedly said that he will pass in the order that the farmers may apply to the Delhi Police Commissioner seeking permission for protests at the concerned sites.
The Bench also directed the Government to file an affidavit by tomorrow, January 13, on their allegations that banned organisations have infiltrated the farmer protests misleading them. On the issue of Delhi Police’s application filed to stop the proposed tractor rally on Republic Day, the Bench said that it will issue a notice in this regard and hear it next week.
Yesterday, on January 11, the Chief Justice had made critical comments against the Government’s method of passing the laws without proper consultation, and its failure to resolve the deadlock even after eight rounds of talks. The Bench had also indicated that they would stay the implementation of the laws and form an independent Committee to resolve the dispute.
The order may be read here:
Related:
Centre to SC: Blames Unions, claims farmers happy, mum on absence of consultation
Extremely disappointed with Government’s handling of farmer protests: SC