SC to consider plea for withholding MSP of farmers for burning stubble

The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to examine a plea for withholding a portion of minimum support price of those farmers who indulged in stubble burning, aggravating the air pollution in Delhi and National Capital Region.

A bench presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde issued notice to the Centre and governments of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on a plea as amicus curiae senior advocate Aparajita Singh contended states have failed to act as per their assurances to take steps to control stubble burning.

A counsel submitted that stubble-burning will exacerbate Covid-19 transmission.

The bench then asked if the smoke kill coronavirus. Senior advocate Vikas Singh said it may aggravate the Covid-19 situation.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan said that there must be a replication of measures adopted to control forest fires in respect of stubble burning.

"For forest fire, there is already a system, by which satellite imageries are captured, and messages are sent to the concerned forest officials for remedial measures. Why can't such measures be adopted with regard to stubble burning," he asked.

He also suggested that a portion of Minimum Support Price should be withheld to verify if the farmer has indulged in stubble burning.

"Who is going to supervise and verify if the farmer has indulged in stubble burning," the bench asked.

To this, Divan said his submissions were based on the recommendations of the expert committee.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, opposed the plea, saying tinkering with MSP would not be in farmers interest. He said he would file the response to the plea.

The court decided to consider the matter, arising out a PIL by environmental activist M C Mehta, on October 16.