Farm laws have been stayed, what are you protesting against: SC to farmers' body
The Supreme Court on Monday asked a farmers' body what is it protesting against when the three farm laws have already stayed and are not in place. A bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar said where is the question of going on protest once a party has already approached the court challenging the validity of the laws.
When Attorney General KK Venugopal referred to the Lakhimpur Kheri incident in which eight people were killed on Sunday, the bench said nobody takes responsibility when such incidents happen. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that once the matter is before the highest Constitutional court, nobody can be on the streets on the same issue.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by a farmers’ body protesting against the three new farm laws and seeking directions to authorities to allow it to stage 'satyagrah' at Jantar Mantar. ‘Kisan Mahapanchayat’, the farmers and agriculturists body, and its president have also sought directions to the concerned authorities to provide space to at least 200 farmers or protestors of the body at the Jantar Mantar for organising peaceful and non-violent ‘Satyagrah’.
The bench, which posted the matter for hearing on October 21, transferred to itself the plea, which was filed by the farmers' body before the Rajasthan High Court challenging the validity of the three farm laws.
Farmers from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh have been protesting against the three laws -- The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020; and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 since November last year. While the farmers have expressed apprehension over the laws doing away with the Minimum Support Price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations, the government has been projecting the laws as major agricultural reforms. Over 10 rounds of talks have failed to break the deadlock between the two parties. Notably, the Supreme Court had in Januaru stayed the implementation of three laws.
