The apex court said that ‘farmers have right to protest but they cannot block roads indefinitely.’
New Delhi (India) : The Supreme Court on Thursday said farmers protesting at Delhi borders against the three farms laws have the right to agitate but they cannot block roads indefinitely.
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A bench headed by Justice S K Kaul said it was not against the right to protest even when the legal challenge is pending but ultimately some solution has to be found.
“Farmers have the right to protest but they cannot keep roads blocked indefinitely. You may have a right to agitate in any manner but roads should not be blocked like this. People have the right to go on roads but it cannot be blocked.” the bench also comprising Justice M M Sundresh said.
The top court asked the farmer unions, who have been arrayed as parties in the case, to respond within three weeks on the issue and posted the matter for hearing on December 7.
The apex court was hearing a PIL filed by a Noida-resident Monicca Agarwal complaining of delays in daily commute caused due to the road blockade owing to the ongoing farmers’ protests.
Farmers have been camping at Delhi borders to demand that the three agri laws be rolled back>
Farmers vacate portion of service road at Delhi’s Ghazipur border
Farmers at the Ghaziapur border in Delhi are vacating a section of the service road below the flyover to allow the movement of public vehicles. The service lane portion of the road goes from Ghaziabad to Delhi, on which the media centre was built by the farmers. Farmers will now sit only on the upper part of the flyover.
Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh have been agitating at three Delhi border points — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — since last November against the three farm laws that they claim will do away with the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.
Over 10 rounds of talks with the government, which has been projecting the laws at major agricultural reforms, have failed to break the deadlock between the two parties. Although the Supreme Court has put the three laws on hold, farmers are adamant about their demand.
Earlier on January 26, a tractor parade in Delhi, that was to highlight the demands of farmer unions to repeal three agriculture laws, had dissolved into anarchy on the streets of the national capital as thousands of protesters broke through barriers, fought with the police, overturned vehicles and hoisted a religious flag from the ramparts of the iconic Red Fort.
