Open blocked Shambhu border crossing, Supreme Court tells Haryana

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Haryana government not to keep a key highway leading to Delhi blocked to prevent farmers from entering the national capital.

The apex court ruling followed a High Court order this week directing the re-opening of the Shambhu border crossing.

The border crossing has been locked since February to block farmers opposed to the Central government’s agricultural policies from marching to Delhi.

SC asks

"How can the state block a highway? It has a duty to regulate traffic ... we are saying 'keep the border open, but also control it," the court said.

A two-judge bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuiyan asked the Haryana government's lawyer if he travelled by the highway.

When the lawyer replied in the affirmative, Justice Kant remarked: "So you (too) must be facing trouble..."

Road blockade

The blockades set up by the state stopped the farmers but also halted all traffic on the highway.

The High Court on Wednesday called for the re-directed the highway to be re-opened within a week on an experimental basis.

The court also directed the authorities to take effective steps to enforce law and order at Shambhu and along the highway.

Haryana questioned

When the Haryana government moved the Supreme Court, the top court asked why the state was even challenging the high court order.

Underlining that farmers were citizens, the apex court suggested that the state government give the protesting farmers food and good medical facilities. “They will come, raise slogans and go back."

February protests

In February this year, an estimated one lakh farmers from Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh began moving towards Delhi in a replay of the 2020-21 protests in which scores of farmers died.

This year, clashes erupted between farmers and security forces at the Shambhu border. Security forces even dropped smoke bombs from drones in a desperate to disperse the farmers.