Supreme Court-Appointed Panel Submits Report On Farm Laws

A committee appointed by the Supreme Court has submitted its report on farm laws, a member has told NDTV. The three-member committee was formed by the top court in January to help end the deadlock over the three contentious laws, which the court had also put on hold.

“The report was submitted on March 19,” committee member Anil Ghanwat has told NDTV.  He, however, refused to divulge any details, saying it is a “confidential process” and that the matter is sub judice.

The court had formed the committee after repeated rounds of talks between the farmers and the government remained inconclusive.
“We want to solve the problem and that’s why we are making the committee,” Chief Justice SA Bobde had said, noting that at the moment, there was no solution in sight.

In a huge blow to the government, he had also put the farm laws on hold, a day after saying it was extremely disappointed” by the government’s handling of the crisis.

“These are matters of life and death. We are concerned with laws. We are concerned with lives and property of people affected by the agitation. We are trying to solve the problem in the best way. One of the powers we have is to suspend the legislation,” the Chief Justice had said.

For the committee, the court had suggested the names of noted agricultural economist Ashok Gulati, Anil Ghanwat of the Shetkari Sanghatana, former Rajya Sabha member Bhupinder Singh Mann and Pramod Joshi of the International Food Policy Research Institute.

The list had triggered controversy since all of them were known supporters of the farm laws.

A day later, Bhupinder Singh Mann, who is also the national president the Bhartiya Kisan Union, stepped down from the committee, saying he did not wish to “compromise farmers’ interests”.

The farmers’ groups had rejected the committee, saying the members were already in favour of farm laws and accused the government of engineering the issue. “We don’t accept this committee, all the members in this committee have been pro-government and these members have been justifying the laws,” Punjab farmers’ unions had said.