The Supreme Court on Tuesday has stayed the three farm laws which have led to massive protests near Delhi border. The court has said that a committee will be set up to understand the ground situation to take over the negotiations with the farmers to end the farmers strike.
Chief Justice SA Bobde said, “We are staying three farm laws until further orders,”
The decision to set up the committee is to help to solve the deadlock between the farmer unions and the government. The bench was headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde and comprising of Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.
Chief Justice SA Bobde said, “These are matters of life and death. We are concerned with laws. We are concerned with lives and property of people affected by the agitation. We are trying to solve the problem in the best way. One of the powers we have is to suspend the legislation,”
He further added, “We want to solve the problem and that’s why we are making the committee. Give the names to us, we will decide,”
The judges told the lawyer representing the protesting farmers, ML Sharma, when he said the farmers would not participate in the committee as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had refused to talk to them.
The apex court said, “We cannot ask the PM anything, he is not a party before us,”
The top court on Monday had come down heavily on the Central government said that it was ‘extremely disappointed’ by the government’s handling of the situation.
CJI SA Bobde had said, “Each one of us we will responsible if anything goes wrong. We don’t want any injuries or blood on our hands,”
The Centre asked for more time referring to the negotiations CJI Bobde said, “We don’t see you are dealing with this issue effectively. We are taking a decision today. Who is going to be responsible for bloodshed if any?”
The protesting farmers who had been agitating against the three farm laws near Delhi border for over a month, have said that a protest march will be organised on January 26, when nation celebrates Republic Day.
The Centre in a reply to the top court said that a disruption to Republic Day parade ‘will be an embarrassment to the nation.’
The government said that the laws were not made hurriedly and were result of deliberations of two decades. Till now, their have been eight rounds of talks between the government and the farmer unions which have not resolved the issue.
The protesting farmers want the government to repeal all the three farm laws as they believe the farm laws leave them vulnerable in the hands of big cooperations.
The next meeting between the farmer union and the government is slated for Friday.