Court doors always open to suggestion, demand: Supreme Court after Punjab says farmers refusing talks

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan was informed by Punjab advocate general Gurminder Singh that the committee invited them on December 17, but protesting farmers did not engage with it.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said its doors are always open for the farmers as they showed disinclination to engage with a high-powered committee to resolve the issues raised by them through the protests and agitation launched since February 13, 2024 at Shambhu border of Punjab and Haryana.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan also told the Punjab government that it would be blamed if anything untoward happened to the farmers leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal who has been on fast unto death. The court noted as per doctor's advise, he required immediate hospitalisation.

Punjab's Advocate General Gurminder Singh submitted that the farmers were disinclined to discuss the committee appointed by the court.

On this, the bench said, "We clarify that court's doors are always open, any suggestion or demand charter by the farmers directly or through their authorised representative can be brought on record. It will be given due consideration alongwith discussion with all stakeholders."

Singh also said Dallewal, who has been on fast for last 20 days, has refused medical tests, his vitals are fine but the doctors suggested for his admission.

On this, the bench told Singh, "There can be a difference of opinion but he needs to be healthy to agitate. As an elected government and a constitutional organ, you cannot let anything happen to him."

The bench said it would try to impress upon all the stakeholders that something should be done.

"But let it not be a pre-condition to save the life of Dallewal," the bench said.

The court fixed the matter for consideration on Thursday.

On December 13, the Supreme Court had asked the court-appointed high-powered panel to engage with protesting farmers to persuade them to either temporarily suspend their protest or relocate it from the highway along the Punjab-Haryana border, where they organised sit in since February 13.

The court had opined that the farmers have a constitutional right to protest, which can be conducted peacefully on the lines of “Gandhian philosophy”.

The bench had then instructed representatives from both the Centre and the Punjab government to urgently meet Dallewal, provide medical aid, and convince him to end his strike.

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.