Supreme Court to hear pleas against farm laws on Jan 11; Centre touts healthy discussions

The Supreme Court will hear on 11 January the petitions challenging Centre's new farm laws and issues related to ongoing farmers' agitation at Delhi's borders. The Apex court noted "we understand the farmers' situation," during the hearing on a petition filed by a lawyer, seeking quashing of the reform laws. 

Observing that there had been no improvement in the situation, CJI SA Bobde said that all petitions challenging the constitutionality of these laws will be heard together next Monday. "We encourage consultation," the Court said after Centre conveyed that "healthy discussions" are going on with farmers over agriculture laws.

Camping at protest venues near Delhi borders for more than 40 days, braving the chilling cold and occasional rains, farmers have asserted that their stir against the farm laws will intensify in the coming days, even as they deferred Wednesday's proposed tractor march over a bad weather forecast.

While hearing the petitions against the farm laws before it went on its December break, the Supreme Court had issued notice to the farmers' groups in an effort to form a panel to forge consensus over the issue.

Centre-Farmers deadlock continues

The deadlock continues as the seventh round of talks with the Centre remained inconclusive, with the farmer groups sticking to their demand for the repeal of the three new laws, and the government listing out various benefits of the new Acts. On Tuesday, the protesting farmers said they were deferring their proposed tractor march from January 6 to January 7 due to a bad weather forecast.

Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and some other parts of the country have been camping at several Delhi border points since November 28, demanding the repeal of the farm laws, a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their crops and other two issues. Last week, the government agreed to exclude farmers from penal provisions of the Air Quality Management ordinance and to not pursue the draft Electricity Bill. The next round of talks is on January 8. 

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Meanwhile, BJP leaders from Punjab on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and arrested that the issue will get resolved soon. They said that the PM is in the know of all developments related to the farmers' protest. BJP leaders Surjit Kumar Jyani and Harjit Singh Grewal met Prime Minister Modi at his residence amid protests by farmers at Delhi's borders for nearly six weeks.

Jyani was chairing the BJP's coordination committee for interacting with farmers in Punjab last year on the three farm bills which at that time had not been passed by Parliament. Grewal was a member of the panel.

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