New Delhi: The Supreme Court-appointed committee constituted to address the concerns of farmers on newly enacted farmers' laws has submitted its report to the court in a sealed cover on Wednesday.
The bench led by the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde and comprising of Justice AS Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramanian had ordered constituting a committee in January, this year. The committee comprised Ashok Gulati, Pramod Joshi, Harsimrat Man, Anil Ghnawant and Bhupinder Singh Mann out of which Mann had withdrawn his name.
The committee was not accepted by the agitating farmers as they contended that all the names given had voiced their support for the laws and the report would be biased. However, the court did not agree with the view and said that they are just there to compile the concerns of the farmers and tell the court, not to take any action.
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"If you can appear before the government then why can't you appear before our committee? If you want to solve the problem then solve it, if you just want to add then you can do it indefinitely. We want to solve, not hear the arguments that farmers will not go before this committee, will not do this or that," CJI had said.
The committee had held various meetings taking into account more than 80 farmers' organisations and various suggestions of agricultural experts. Now after two months it has given a report to SC.
The court will reopen on April 5, next week after which the matter will be heard.
Meanwhile, farmers have been continuing their protest against the three newly enacted farm laws -- Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 at different borders in the national capital.
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