New Delhi, (Samajweekly) The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the implementation of the three laws – the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020; and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, until a committee of experts it set up talks to the government and the farmers and reports back to it
Following are key points of the apex court order.
1. The Minimum Support Price (MSP) system in existence before the enactment of the farm laws will be maintained until further orders from the top court.
2. Farmers’ land holdings shall be protected, i.e., no farmer shall be dispossessed or deprived of his title as a result of any action taken under the farm laws.
3. Committee constituted by the top court, comprising Bhupinder Singh Mann, Pramod Kumar Joshi, Ashok Gulati, Anil Ghanwant, to listen to the grievances of farmers relating to the farm laws and the views of the government.
4. The committee shall be provided a place as well as secretarial assistance at Delhi by the government. All expenses for the committee to hold sittings at Delhi or anywhere else shall be borne by the Central government.
5. The representatives of all the farmers’ bodies, whether they are holding a protest or not, and whether they support or oppose the laws shall participate in the deliberations of the committee and put forth their view points.
6. The Committee shall, upon hearing the Government as well as the representatives of the farmers’ bodies, and other stakeholders, submit a report containing its recommendations. This shall be done within two months from the date of its first sitting. The first sitting shall be held within ten days from today (Tuesday).
7. The stay on implementation of farm laws will encourage the farmers’ bodies to convince their members to get back to their livelihood, both in order to protect their own lives and health and in order to protect the lives and properties of others.
