SC expert panel submits report on 3 farm laws
NEW DELHI: The three-member expert committee formed by the Supreme Court to study the three farm laws passed by the Parliament and recommend changes has submitted its report to the apex court in a sealed cover. The court, which is currently closed due to Holi recess, is expected to take up the matter next week on reopening.
Confirming the development, one of the expert members in the committee, Anil Ghanwat, said, “The committee has submitted its report to the Supreme Court on March 19 in a sealed cover. The report is based on the issues referred to it for consideration as per the January 12 order passed by the Supreme Court. We have given our recommendations. Now it is entirely up to the Supreme Court to act on our recommendations.” Ghanwat is also the president of the Maharashtrabased farmer organisation, Shetkari Sanghatana.
At the heart of the dispute are the three farm laws -Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Essential
Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020. The laws were cleared by the Parliament and came into operation after receiving Presidential assent in September last year.
The committee was originally constituted with Bhupinder Singh Mann (then national president, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Mann), and All India Kisan Coordination Committee), Pramod Kumar Joshi (agricultural economist, 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.
Two days later, Mann resigned expressing solidarity with the cause of the farmer unions opposed to the laws.
Prior to January 12 when the committee was formed, several rounds of negotiations between the government and farmer unions ended in a deadlock with many farmer unions intensifying their stir at Delhi borders and demanding repeal of the laws.