Panel soon on farmers’ issues: Supreme Court wants Shambhu blockade to end

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 22

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the governments of Punjab and Haryana to hold further meetings with protesting farmers to persuade them to remove their tractor-trailers from the Shambhu border. The farmers have been camping at the border since February.

The top court also said it would set up a multi-member expert committee within a week to resolve the farmers’ grievances “for all times”.

At the very outset, Punjab Advocate General (AG) Gurminder Singh informed a three-judge Bench, led by Justice Surya Kant, that in terms of its August 12 order, officials of the two states held a meeting with farmers who have agreed to partial reopening of the blocked highway. However, the farmers had insisted on marching towards Delhi with their tractors-trailers, he said.

The Bench, including Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, asked the two state governments to engage with the protesters to clear the blockade at the Shambhu border in order to allow the passage of ambulances, senior citizens, women, students, essential services and commuters.

The Bench was hearing a petition of the Haryana Government challenging the July 10 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court requiring it to remove within a week the barricades at the Shambhu border. It asked the Punjab AG and Haryana senior Additional Advocate General Lokesh Sinhal to inform it by the next date about the progress made in talks with farmers. The Bench asked Punjab and Haryana to submit tentative issues concerning farmers for consideration of the expert committee, which it would set up to resolve the farmers’ grievances “for all times” .

The top court also allowed the Punjab Government to submit two or three additional names of “apolitical” and “neutral” persons for inclusion in the proposed committee. The Bench posted the matter for further hearing on September 2.