The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that farmers holding agitations in the border of Delhi have the right to protest but they cannot block roads indefinitely.
An SC bench headed by Justice SK Kaul said that it is not against the farmers’ right to protest even as legal challenge is pending but roads cannot be blocked indefinitely. “Ultimately, some solution has to be found,” it said in its order.
The SC bench, also comprising Justice M M Sundresh, granted the farmers unions three weeks' time to respond to plea seeking to remove protesters from the Delhi border.
The petition was filed by one Monicca Agarwal living in Noida. The petitioner cited delays in daily commuting due to the road blockade by farmers protesting against the three contentious farm laws, which got the presidential assent on September 27, 2020.
Farmers in the country, mainly from Punjab and Haryana have been strongly protesting against the three farm laws of the government in Delhi since November 26, 2020. The bill allows the farmers to sell their produce outside the government-conrolled Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) regulated markets.
Following the strong protest by the farmers against the the Supreme Court on January 12, 2021 stayed the implementation of the farm laws and appointed a committee to look into the farmer grievances related to the farm laws.
The next hearing of the case has been posted for December 7.