Supreme Court advises Centre to put farm laws on hold, declares protests constitutional

Supreme Court advises Centre to put farm laws on hold, declares protests constitutional

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cknowledging the prerogative of farmers to demonstrate their disapproval and outrage through non violent protest, the Supreme court declared farmers' protests constitutional. Freedom of speech and expression grants every individual to further their ideas and opinions in a non violent, non defamatory, inoffensive and lawful way. In this regard, on Thursday SC suggested Centre to pause the implementation of farm laws to get the hold of circumstances. An idea is put forth by the bench to convene an impartial and independent committee including intellectuals like P. Sainath to end the chaos by addressing demands of farmers and aspirations of the government.

The head of three judge bench, Chief Justice of India, S A Bobde heard the pleas of farmers for repealing the new farm laws and said that SC will serve notices to farm unions and grant them liberty to approach the vacation bench. "The protests are lawful until it abides by principles of non violence and doesn't harm or endanger life or property," said the bench.

The bench made its intentions clear on the outset of hearing that protests can be calmed down by conducting a dialogue between farmers and centre and they will try to facilitate that. The agenda of hearing was to bring both parties to the negotiation table. The petitioners sought the attention of the bench towards the inconvenience and adversities caused by the protests. Borders are sealed and roads are blocked which is posing a huge problem for commuters and hardships for Covid 19 patients who are unable to access medical aid on time.

The other bench members, Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian highlighted that farmers can't trigger violence and block normal functioning of the city like this. This is intervening with citizen's right to movement. The court advised the centre to look into the conduct of protests to avoid possible havoc in the city. Appealing to the bench, Attorney General KK Venugopal brought the attention of council to the fact that, "protestors are not wearing masks or practicing social distancing in times of covid spread. After returning to the village they can communicate virus to a much larger population." Blocking of National Capital can lead to hunger and poverty.

Farmers hold a view that these laws could dismantle the minimum selling price and leave them on mercy of big corporates. On Wednesday, farm unions sent a reply to the government, rejecting their December 9 proposal offering considerable concessions.