New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday issued a notice to the Centre and others on a batch of petitions seeking removal of farmers camping at several roads near Delhi borders in protest against the three new agri laws.
A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde, and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian also indicated that the court may form a committee having representatives of the government and the farmer unions across the country to resolve the deadlock over the legislations.
In a hearing conducted via video conferencing, the bench directed the petitioners to make protesting farmer unions parties to the pleas and posted the matter for hearing on Thursday.
"Your negotiations with protesting farmers have not worked apparently till now," the bench told the Centre.
The court also proposed the formation of a committee which would comprise of Bhartiya Kisan Union, some other farm unions and government representatives so that they can all sit and work out the issue together. CJI SA Bobde said that the matter can soon become a national issue and asked the advocates to make a list of potential candidates.
Meanwhile, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, submitted before the court today that the government was always ready to talk and still is but the approach of farmers is not right. They say whether you will repeal the act or not, they want answer in yes or no, said SG. He said that the government won't do anything against the farmers, they should sit together and discuss clause by clause on what the issue is so that it can work out.
CJI remarked that government negotiation doesn't work, it should be willing to negotiate and the court should have a farmer who is willing to negotiate.
The court directed today that farmers union should be impleaded in the matter as there were none today and sought response from the centre by tomorrow i.e 17th December.
Multiple pleas have been filed in the SC seeking a direction to authorities to immediately remove the farmers, saying commuters are facing hardships due to the road blockades and the gatherings might lead to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.
With inputs from PTI
