Put farm laws on hold, or we will do it: SC tells Centre

The Supreme Court on Monday expressed disappointment with the way the talks are going between the Centre and protesting farmers, and asked the government whether it’d pause the three farm laws from implementation.

Stating the situation has gone worse, it said, “We are not experts on economy; you tell us whether the government is going to put the farm laws on hold or we will do this. What’s the ego here?”

A clearly disappointed Chief Justice of India SA Bobde said, “Each one of us we will be responsible if anything goes wrong. We don’t want any injuries or blood on our hands.”

“We are extremely disappointed with the way negotiations are going on between the government and farmers over the new farm laws,” SC said. “What is going on? States are rebelling against your laws…We are not talking about repeal of these farm laws at the moment; this is a very delicate situation, says SC,” it said.

Stating that there is not a single petition before them which says these laws are beneficial to farmers, the court said its intention was to see negotiated solution but no response from Centre on willingness to put farm laws on hold.

It also reiterated need for committee on farm laws, says it will stop their implementation if panel advises to do so. “Farmers are protesting against laws, let them tell their objections to committee; we may accept its recommendations,” the court said.

“We are sorry to say that you, as the Union of India, are not able to solve the problem. You have made a law without enough consultation resulting in a strike. So you have to resolve the strike,” the CJI told Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, representing the Centre.

Meanwhile, it also responded to the farmers saying, “Whether you have faith or not, we are the Supreme Court of India, we will do our job.”