Congress MP TN Prathapan approaches SC against recently passed farm law
Sep 28, 2020
New Delhi [India], September 28 : Congress MP TN Prathapan on Monday approached the Supreme Court against the Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, which recently received the assent of the President.
Prathapan, Member of Parliament from Kerala's Thrissur constituency, submitted that the Act has been hastily passed without having an adequate discussion on it, that a bare reading of its provisions will reveal that it is not a progressive piece of legislation.
"In fact, the implementation of the act in its current form will spell disaster for the farming community by opening a parallel market which is unregulated and gives enough room for exploitation of the farmers' community by the concentration of power in the hands of a few corporates/individuals, multinationals and moneylenders thus working against the very object it was seemingly created for," the plea said.
It said that the Act also fails to establish farmer-centric courts where the farmers can raise their grievances, similar to the ones created under the labor act, consumer act, family courts act, etc, and instead the act gives the responsibility to the sub-divisional magistrate who already has multiple other duties and functions to perform.
"Certain provisions of the Act are in fact against the basic structure of the Constitution and fundamental rights of the farmers as it puts them in a position wherein if any dispute arises, the farmer will be running towards the already overburdened bureaucracy for a remedy instead of getting an effective and permanent solution to his problem in a court of law," the plea said.
"Unchecked hoarding will give exporters, processors, and traders the power to regulate the prices of the products as and when they need, creating artificial demand thus controlling price in the market at will," it added.
Approaching the apex court, Prathapan said that the agricultural sector plays a fundamental role in the prosperity of the country's GDP and employment of 58 percent of the working population.
"A large portion of 65.53 per cent consisting of the rural population, depends on agriculture as their principal means of livelihood. Thus, the common man, agriculture and the Indian economy is intrinsically linked to one another," the plea said.
It sought directions to declare Section(s) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, 18 and 19 of the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 as "unconstitutional, illegal and void".
The Parliament had recently passed The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Service Act, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
The three farm bills passed by both the Houses of the Parliament had recently received the assent of President Ram Nath Kovind amid protests in several parts of the country by opposition parties, farmers and other organisations against the three Acts.
