Farmers' protest: Supreme Court to hear pleas related to Republic Day tractor rally violence today

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear a batch of pleas pertaining to tractor rally violence in the National Capital on the Republic Day, including the one which has sought setting up of a commission headed by a retired apex court judge to inquire into the incident. The tractor parade on 26 January that was to highlight the demands of farmer unions to repeal three new agri laws dissolved into anarchy on the streets of the National Capital as protesters broke through barriers, fought with the police, overturned vehicles, and hoisted a religious flag from the ramparts of the iconic Red Fort. The petitions would be taken up for hearing by a bench comprising Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian. One of the pleas filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari has sought setting up of a three-member inquiry commission under the chairmanship of a former apex court judge and comprising of two retired high court judges for collecting and recording evidence and submit a report on the 26 January violence to the top court in a time-bound manner. He has also sought direction to the concerned authority to lodge FIRs against individuals or organisations responsible for the violence and causing dishonour of the National Flag on 26 January. Another petition has been filed by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma who has sought a direction to the concerned authority as well as the media not to declare farmers as “terrorist” without any evidence. Sharma has claimed in his plea that there was a planned conspiracy to sabotage the protest by farmers’ and they were allegedly declared as terrorist without any evidence. He has sought directions to prohibit propagation of false allegations and actions declaring farmers as terrorist without any evidence. Besides the petitions filed by Tiwari and Sharma, the court would also hear some other pleas related to the incident. In his petition, Tiwari has said that farmers’ protest against the three new agri laws is going on for over two months but it took a violent turn during the tractor parade. “Unfortunately, the tractor march took a violent turn leaving injuries and destruction of public property. This incident also effected the daily life of the public. The internet services were interrupted as government ordered the operators to suspend the same. In the present time, the internet services are very essential to carry out the work in different professions especially in advocacy as the courts and our Supreme Court of India is functioning online,” Tiwari has said in his plea. It said that clash between the farmers and police on the Republic Day has caught the attention of the entire world. The matter is serious because when the protest was going on peacefully for last two months then suddenly, how it turned into violent movement and led violence on January 26. The question for consideration in national security and public interest arises that who is responsible for creating the disturbance and how and who turned the peaceful farmer protest into violent movement or how and who created the circumstances which let the protest turn violent, it said. The plea said there may be some conspiracy by some notorious forces or organizations to cause disturbance and damage the peaceful protest and create clash between police and protesting farmers. On 20 January, the Centre had withdrawn its application, filed through Delhi Police, seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor march on 26 January after the apex court had said that issue of tractor rally by farmers protesting against the new farms laws was in executive domain. On 12 January, the apex court had stayed the implementation of the contentious new farm laws till further orders and constituted a four-member committee to make recommendations to resolve the impasse over them between the Centre and farmers’ unions protesting at Delhi borders. The members of the court-appointed committee were — Bhupinder Singh Mann, National President of Bhartiya Kisan Union, All India Kisan Coordination Committee; Parmod Kumar Joshi, Director for South Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute; Ashok Gulati, agricultural economist and former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, and Anil Ghanwat, President of Shetkari Sanghatana. Later, Mann had recused himself from the committee. The top court had on 12 January said it would hear the pleas against the farm laws after eight weeks when the committee would give its suggestions to resolve the impasse after talking to the protesters and the government. 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.