Supreme Court expresses concern, to take up matter on January 11

New Delhi: Expressing its concern over the deadlock on farm stir, the Supreme Court on Wednesday pointed out to the Union government that there had been no breakthrough in the impasse between the Centre and thousands of farmers standing firm on their demands to repeal three controversial agricultural laws and to provide legal backing for minimum support price (MSP).

"The situation has no improvement at all," Chief Justice of India Sharad A Bobde told Attorney General K K Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the two top law officers of the country, during a virtual court hearing.

The Apex court said it will hear on January 11 a batch of pleas challenging the new farm laws as well as the issues related to the ongoing farmers' protest at Delhi borders.

The Attorney General said there is a good chance that parties may come to a conclusion in the near future and filing of response by the Centre on the pleas challenging the new farm laws might foreclose the negotiations between the farmers and government.

While informing the bench that talks are going on between the government and farmers in a "healthy atmosphere", Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that these matters should not be listed for hearing on January 8.

After hearing Venugopal and Mehta, the top court adjourned the matter for Monday. "We understand the situation and encourage consultation. We can adjourn the matters on Monday (January 11) if you submit the same due to the ongoing consultation process," the bench said. 

On Monday, talks between the Centre and farmer unions remained inconclusive over two key demands — repeal of the newly enacted laws and provision of legal guarantee on the minimum support price — with the two sides drawing the hard line on their respective positions.

The talks will resume on January 8 when the two sides sit across the table for what will be the eighth round of negotiations ever since the protests that brought farmers from Punjab and Haryana to the gates of Delhi on November 26.

Emerging from the meeting with the unions Monday, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told reporters, "We wanted a clause-wise discussion on the laws, so that we could proceed on the way forward. The discussion was mainly centred on this. We discussed the issue of MSP briefly, but could not arrive at a decision. Therefore, the government and the unions decided to meet again on January 8 to take the discussions forward."

Meanwhile, farmer unions protesting against the new agriculture laws have said they would hold a "tractor march" on the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways on Thursday, as a "rehearsal" for January 26 rally.