Supreme Court Refuses Plea Seeking Free Movement Of Farmers To New Delhi

The apex court refused to entertain a PIL seeking directions to the Central government to consider the reasonable demands of the protesting farmers and to allow the protesters to move to the national capital. Reports ETV Bharat's Sumit Saxena.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Monday refused to examine a plea for a direction to the Centre to consider the reasonable demands of the farmers' and remove all barricading in their peaceful march and also allow them to gather in the national capital.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and K V Vishwanathan asked the petitioner not to file such a petition in the court based on media reports only for the sake of publicity. The bench said these are complex issues and asked the petitioner’s counsel to do some research. The bench told the counsel, “Be careful. The High Court is also seized of the similar issue and has given directions. We are not taking a stand on anything……”.

According to the petitioner’s counsel, the court allowed him to withdraw the petition to make amendments. The petition was filed by Agnostos Theos, managing director of the Sikh Chamber of Commerce.

The plea sought a direction to the Centre to consider the reasonable demands of the farmers, who are protesting peacefully, remove all barricading, authorities to not cause hindrance in the farmers' peaceful march and gathering in the national capital, and unblock the social media accounts and respect the right to free speech of the people sharing information about the farmer’s protest.

The petitioner made the Union of India, Haryana government, Madhya Pradesh government, Uttar Pradesh government, Punjab government, Delhi government, and National Human Rights Commission, as respondents in the petition.

The plea said: “the respondent governments have employed aggressive and violent measures like usage of tear gas, rubber bullet pellets, expired shells etc., against peacefully protesting farmers, leading to serious and grievous injuries among the farmers….”.

The plea stressed that farmers are lacking any assistance or aid from the government, and they are under-resourced and under-staffed regarding medical practitioners to help treat those who are seriously injured, which resulted in permanent injuries, and in some cases death of the farmers.

“the actions taken by the Respondent governments by creating fortification across the borders of the national capital, creating hostile and violent situations against its own peaceful citizens and not allowing the farmers to exercise their democratic right, has led to direct and indirect defamation of the intentions and the objective of the protesting farmers”, said the plea.

The plea stressed that the peaceful farmers have been subject to conditions similar to terrorists by their own government, simply for the exercise of their democratic and constitutional rights.

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