Will farmers continue their protest at Delhi border or shift to other place? Crucial Supreme Court hearing today

The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear a petition seeking removal of the farmers protesting against the Centre’s farm laws from Delhi borders.

The farmers have been protesting at Singhu and other border points of Delhi since November 26 seeking the repeal of the three laws passed in September.

The petition has been filed by law student Rishabh Sharma and will be heard by a bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde, justice A S Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramanian. Sharma has said in his petition that commuters are facing hardships due to the road blockades and the gatherings might lead to an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said on Tuesday that the farmers are being misled about the reforms introduced by his government in the agriculture sector. He also lashed out at the opposition parties and farmer organisations.

Modi expressed surprise at the protests triggered by the reforms his government introduced in September. Some opposition parties and farmers’ unions had all along demanded such measures, which couldn’t be implemented in the past, he said at Dhordo in Kutch, Gujarat.

“The farmers are being misled about the agricultural reforms. They are being fooled into believing that others will occupy their lands,” PM Modi said in Hindi. “These reforms are exactly the same that farmers’ organisations and even the opposition have been asking over the years,” he said.

The farmers are protesting against the recently enacted Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

Meanwhile, farmer leaders on Tuesday asserted that they will “make” the Centre repeal the three new agri laws in a hardening of their stand. The union leaders again made it clear the government should first repeal all the three laws and only then there can be further talks. Negotiations between the government and the farmers’ unions have remained stuck after five rounds.