Shambhu border closure: What Haryana told Supreme Court in plea against HC order

On July 22, the SC will hear Haryana's plea against the July 10 order of the Punjab and Haryana HC directing the state to open the border.

The Haryana government, in its appeal in the Supreme Court against the July 10 order of the Punjab and Haryana high court that directed the state government to open the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border within a week, has said that the HC gave the order despite ‘categorical submission’ by the state concerning possible 'law and order issues.'

The barricaded Haryana border at Shambhu.

“Despite the categorical submission regarding the law and order issue that may arise, the threat to life and property, and despite a plea to shift the agitators out of the National Highway, the high court has, on an experimental basis, directed for the opening of Shambhu border without passing any directions against the agitators,” the plea, filed through advocate Akshay Amritanshu, stated.

“Law and order is a state subject under the Constitution and it is the state's responsibility to assess ground realities, threat perception, likelihood of breach of peace, and violation of law,” the plea further mentioned.

Also, though the Haryana government acknowledged that inconvenience was being caused to the general public due to closure of the border, it pointed to a portion in the high court order which records that ‘400 to 500 trolleys’ and ‘50 to 60 other vehicles’ with a ‘gathering of about 500 agitators’ were still camping at the site.

A Supreme Court bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan on Tuesday agreed to list Haryana's Special Leave Petition (SLP), filed a day ago, on July 22.

Why is the Shambhu border closed?

The border has remained closed since February 13, the day when several farmer unions from Punjab began their march towards Delhi in support of various demands, including a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for crops. In response, the Haryana government set up barricades on the Ambala-New Delhi national highway to stop the farmers' march to the national capital.

The cultivators were stopped by security forces and have been camping at Shambhu since then.

(With PTI inputs)