‘Issue bound to arise somewhere’: Supreme Court notice to Centre on petition challenging farm laws
Four petitions were listed before the court on the issue of passage of farm bills by Parliament. The notice was issued on a petition filed by Rakesh Vaishnav, who represents Chhattisgarh Kisan Congress.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to Centre, seeking response on a petition challenging the farm bills passed by Parliament last month. These bills received President’s Ram Nath Kovind’s assent and became law.
The notice was issued on a petition filed by Rakesh Vaishnav, who represents Chhattisgarh Kisan Congress.
The three-judge bench of chief justice of India SA Bobde, AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notice and asked Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal to file the response.
The court noted that no cause of action has so far arisen but Vaishnav’s lawyer P Parmeswaran argued that his client had earlier approached the Chhattisgarh high court challenging the ordinance. He requested the Supreme Court to strike down the new farm laws claiming that they surreptitiously repealed local laws in Chhattisgarh.
The bench said, “We will issue notice as this issue is bound to arise somewhere or other.”
Four petitions were listed before the court on this issue. For this case, along with AG, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and ASG KM Natraj appeared.
The three laws passed by Parliament are: Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Agriculture and Promotion) Act, 2020, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020.