For more than a month, farmers have been staging protests against the Centre’s farm laws. The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought response of the Union government on a public interest litigation challenging the constitutional validity of newly enacted three farm laws on grounds including that Parliament lacked power to make legislations on the subject.
The petition also raised questions over the validity of ‘the Constitution (3rd Amendment Act) of 1954′ which allegedly empowered the Centre to frame the controversial laws on agriculture. While issuing notice to the Ministry of Law and Justice on the PIL of lawyer M L Sharma, a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said it would hear on 11 January all the pleas challenging the new farm laws as also the ones raising issues related to the ongoing farmers’ protest at Delhi borders.
The bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, took note of the petition which also contended that the subject ‘agriculture’ has wrongly been put in the concurrent list in the Constitution by parliament in 1954. The SC also allowed the lawyer to amend his PIL in which he has also sought quashing of the three laws. Earlier on 19 November, the bench had restored the PIL of Sharma which was dismissed on 12 October and he was asked to approach the High Court instead. In the meantime, fresh round of talks are also to be held between farmers and the government. Finding an amicable solution is the need of the hour.