NE LEGAL BUREAU
NEW DELHI, DEC 17
The Supreme Court on Thursday acknowledged the right of farmers to non-violent protests and said it was thinking of setting up an “impartial and independent” panel of agriculture experts and farmer unions to resolve the impasse over three contentious farm laws.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said it would set up the committee which may include experts like P Sainath and representatives of the government and farmers’ bodies to look for the resolution of the deadlock over the statutes.
The bench also comprising justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, “We acknowledge the right of farmers to protest but it has to be non-violent.”
In a hearing conducted via video conferencing, the top court said the purpose of staging protest can be achieved if the farmers and the government will hold talks and “we wish to facilitate that”.
“We will not decide the validity of the law today. The only thing which we will decide is the issue of protest and the right to move freely,” the bench made clear at the outset of the hearing which is still going on.
It is hearing a clutch of petitions seeking removal of farmers protesting at several roads along Delhi’s borders.
Govt willing to sit with farmers to sort out issues: Puri
The government is willing to sit with the farmers protesting against the Centre’s new farm laws and sort out the issues, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday.
Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, and elsewhere have been protesting at various border points of Delhi, including Singhu and Tikri, for over a fortnight, demanding that the Centre repeal the three new farm laws.
“It pains me that many people who are sitting in protest probably are not aware of what they are protesting against… Government is still sending a message to all the farmers that please come and talk,” Puri said at an online function of industry chamber HDCCI.
There were three demands – MSP (minimum support price) should not be taken away, mandis should stay and nobody should in a clandestine manner usurp the farmers” land — and all these have been granted, he added.
“There has been a big misunderstanding… we are willing to sit with anyone and sort this out,” Puri added.
The minister, who also holds the civil aviation portfolio, expressed confidence that by the end of December and the first quarter of 2021 (January-March) “we will be back to pre-COVID levels”.
He said that all the normal civil aviation operations were closed when India went in for a lockdown in March and reopened on May 25, with just 30,000 passengers a day.
“A few days ago, we had more than 2,53,000 passengers… I am confident that by the end of December and the first quarter of 2021 (January-March 2021), we will be back to pre-COVID levels,” he added.
