New Delhi: A plea has been moved in the Supreme Court seeking 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 plea has been filed by Agnostos Theos, managing director of The Sikh Chamber of Commerce. The petitioner has 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 understaffed 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.
The plea alleged the violation of the rights of the farmers protesting for their demands, enshrined under Article 14, Article 19, and Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The farmers peacefully protested for their demand for the implementation of the recommendations of the Swaminathan committee as per their call for the protest for ‘Dilli Chalo’ on February 13, it added.
“The Respondent, Union and State governments, in anticipation of the protest by the farmer, issued threats against the people in participating in the protest, fortified the borders of the state around the city of Delhi, with iron spikes, concrete walls, etc. ensuring that farmers are not able to enter territory of the national capital”, it said.
The plea said the farmers coming to protest for their rights even by their own private vehicles, from the state bordering Delhi, were forcefully arrested and detained by the respondent governments. “Similarly, farmers coming from various other states of the county, to join the protesting farmers, were detained in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, and were also sent to other states, just to avoid them meeting with protesting farmers”, it added.
“in the days leading up to 13.02.2024 borders of the national capital were fortified with concrete walls, iron spikes etc., restricting the farmers from entering the national capital without any due reasonable cause against the peaceful farmers violating their right to travel freely throughout the territory of the country as enshrined under Article 19(1)(d) of the Constitution of India”, said the plea.
- " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="">
Read More
