The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre’s response on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of three farm laws, recently passed by the both Houses of Parliament.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde issued notice to the central government and sought its reply within four weeks.
The bench was hearing pleas filed by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) lawmaker from Rajya Sabha, Manoj Jha and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Rajya Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu, Tiruchi Siva, Congress Lok Sabha MP from Kerala, TN Prathapan and one petition filed by Rakesh Vaishnav.
The petitions alleged that farm laws will destroy the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) system intended to ensure fair prices for farm products.
The Parliament had recently passed the three farm bills, which have come into effect from September 27 after President Ram Nath Kovind’s assent. Since then, the farmer’s organisations have intensified and scaled up their agitation against the new laws.
Several farmers’ organisations, including from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have been protesting for the past few weeks against the three laws.
