The Centre on Wednesday withdrew its plea seeking injunction against the proposed tractor rally by farmers on Republic Day after the Supreme Court said it was a “law and order matter” and it was “inappropriate for it to act as first authority”.
The court’s observations came during a hearing on the plea of the central government, filed though the Delhi Police, seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor march or any other kind of protest by farmers that seeks to disrupt the gathering and celebrations of Republic Day on January 26.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde said, “We have told you that we will not issue any direction. It is a police matter. We will allow you to withdraw. You are the authority and you have to deal with it. You have the powers to pass orders, you do it. It is not for the court to pass orders.”
https://0075a4b55468e911316507caf3fbd714.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html?n=1 The bench, also comprising of Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, had said on Monday that police was the first authority to decide who should be allowed to enter Delhi.
As part of their protest, on January 26, thousands of farmers from Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders are set to take out a tractor march on Delhi’s outer Ring Road. Ahead of the proposed tractor rally, senior Delhi Police officers met farm leaders at Singhu border on Tuesday to discuss the route and security arrangements.
Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various border points of Delhi for over a month now against the three laws — the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act.
The Supreme Court also expressed “serious reservations” on aspersions cast on members of the panel appointed by it to resolve impasse over farm laws, saying they have not been conferred with any adjudicatory power.
Meanwhile, it had on January 11 stayed the implementation of the three laws, against which farmers are protesting at Delhi borders for over 50 days now, till further orders and appointed a four-member panel to resolve the impasse.
