The Supreme Court on Friday imposed Rs 25,000 cost on the Centre for failing to clear its stand on the issue of revisiting the National Policy for Farmers, 2007.
A social justice bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit slapped the cost while refusing to accept the contention of Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, who appeared for the Centre, that affidavit could not be filed due to vacations.
The apex court bench then posted the matter for hearing on January 15.
Earlier, the apex court had sought the government’s response on revisiting its eight-year-old policy on farmers, saying that the suicides may be linked to certain inherent deficiencies in it.
On Centre’s claim that number of suicide incidents have reduced, the bench had remarked, “Decrease in number (of suicides) is not enough, there should be no case of farmer suicide in the country.”
Published 30 October 2015, 19:37 IST