SC issues notice to Centre, states over plea on pending payments of sugarcane farmers

The farmers had to be paid Rs 7,500 crores in Uttar Pradesh and Rs 3,585 crores in Karnataka, the plea said

The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to consider a fresh matter for a direction to state governments to place on records pending dues of sugarcane farmers and action taken by them against the mill owners.

A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Surya Kant issued notice to the Centre and various states including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and a number of sugar mills.

Senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for former Lok Sabha MP Raju Anna Shetti, submitted an identical matter that has already been admitted for consideration by the court. He said dues of the farmers have gone upto Rs 18,000 crore as of January 1, 2021.

The farmers had to be paid Rs 7,500 crores in Uttar Pradesh and Rs 3,585 crores in Karnataka, he said.

The court, after a brief submission by Grover, sought a response from different authorities and put the matter for consideration after three weeks.

The petitioners asked the top court to set up a strict mechanism by which the price of sugarcane produce is paid to cane farmers as per law to avoid accumulation of such dues.

They also wanted a system to be put in place to prevent farmers from the vicious cycle when a sugar mill is declared sick and their dues of sugarcane produce remained unpaid during the process of resolution or liquidation of sugar mills, leading to the deteriorating financial condition of cane farmers, violating their fundamental rights enshrined under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.

The petitioners claimed States have failed to perform their legal duty cast upon them by the Legislations to ensure the payment of the cane price along with interest on the arrears of the sugar cane price to be paid to farmers and upon the corresponding obligation which is cast upon the sugar mills/factories.

The PIL further urged the apex court to direct the governments to release some ad hoc payments to the sugarcane growers against their outstanding dues.

"Due to deteriorating conditions of sugar mills, their inability to pay cane dues and the acts of omission and commission on part of the respondent state governments and the central government and the concerned authorities, the Petitioners are constrained to approach this Court to seek directions against the Respondents, who have failed to comply with their statutory obligations to pay the dues of poor farmers as per the timelines stipulated under Sugar (Control) Order, 1966," the petition stated.

It said that in a country like India, where agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for 58 per cent of population, non payment of dues to farmers causes grave prejudice to the fundamental right of livelihood, under Article 21 of the Constitution, of the farmers and their families, who are completely dependent on the income generated through the agriculture process of cultivation of sugarcane.

The pending dues of cane growers running in thousands of crores of Rupees due to unreasonable delay in payment by sugar mills/factories caused grave financial hardships to the sugar cane growers, that ed to serious problems causing social unrest who have no other source of income and was the cause of the suicide of farmers," the plea claimed.

The petition sought direction to the Centre and state governments to file affidavits setting out the details of the amounts due, the amounts paid and arrears by the sugar mills to the sugarcane grower or their cooperatives for sale of their cane along with interest thereon at 15 per cent on year-wise from 2018 to 2020.