The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday suspended the implementation of the new farm laws until further orders and set up a committee of experts which will take inputs from the central government and farmer unions in order to resolve the impasse.
Update: Later in the day, farmer groups rejected the Supreme Chris testee, reflecting a trust deficit. Farmers say the four-member committee that SC has appointed is pro-government.
The four members in the committee includes to Representatives if farmers’ joins and two agricultural economists.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, has asked all parties to recommend names for forming the Supreme-court ordered committee. The apex court recommended agriculture economist Ashok Gulati, international policy head Dr Pramod Joshi, Shivkeri Sangathna’s Anil Dhanawat, and Bharatiya Kisan Union’s president Jitender Singh Maan to sit on the committee.
The bench said: “This is not politics. There is a difference between politics and judiciary and you will have to cooperate.” When the farmer unions were unwilling to appear before the committee, the bench stated those “genuinely” interested to find a solution would do so.
The court also probed the Centre on whether a banned organization had infiltrated the farmer’s protest. The direction came from PS Narasimha who represented a petitioner supporting the farm laws and claimed that the members of “Sikh for Justice” were helping the protests. Stating Khalistanis were part of the farm protests, the Attorney General said he would file an affidavit with Intelligence Bureau records by Wednesday.
The court also issued notice on Delhi Police petition seeking to stop the tractor rally by farmers planned on Republic Day.
As reported, the Supreme Court came down harshly yesterday on the government. Read here: India’s Supreme Court intervenes, asks govt to stay farm laws
