'Court appointed committee meeting protesting farmers,' SC to consider farmers matter on Friday

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court was on Monday informed that the court appointed committee led by Justice Nawab Singh is going to meet the farmers during the day, spurring a hope that a good sense would prevail on protestors including their leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who is being persuaded to take medical aid, over various demands including legal guarantee for minimum support price.

Supreme Court to Address Farmers’ MSP Demand and Hunger Strike on Friday

The top court decided to examine on January 10 a matter related to medical aid to Dallewal, who is on hunger strike.

"We hope and pray, better sense prevailed on both the sides, let us hope something positive emerges out of it," a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh orally observed, upon being informed about the meeting by senior advocate Kapil Sibal.

As he requested for adjournment, the bench fixed the matter for consideration on Friday.

Court-Appointed Committee Engages with Farmers Amid Ongoing Protest

At the outset, Sibal submitted that the protestors have been somehow managed to meet Justice Nawab Singh, heading the high powered committee at 3 pm on Monday.

The court asked the committee and others to apprise it of the outcome, before scheduling the matter for consideration on January 10.

On September 2, the Supreme Court had set up a high-powered panel headed by Justice Nawab Singh, a former Punjab and Haryana High Court's judge, to conduct negotiations with the farmers, holding a sit-in at Shambhu border since February 13 over their various demands including legal guarantee for minimum support price for their produce.

Apart from a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers demanded implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and compensation to the families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.

Dallewal has been on an indefinite fast at the Khanauri border since November 26, demanding the Centre to accept the agitating farmers' demands, including a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) on crops.

The court is seized of a contempt petition filed by Labh Singh against the failure of the Punjab government to provide medical help to Dallewal, who has been on hunger strike, in terms of the apex court's order of December 20.