‘State can’t block highway’, Supreme Court tells Haryana to open Shambhu border

New Delhi, July 12

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Haryana Government to remove the barricades set up at the Shambhu border near Ambala where farmers have been camping since February 13 as it wondered how it could block a highway.

Regulate traffic

How can a state block a highway? It has a duty to regulate traffic. We are saying open and regulate it. SC Bench

“How can a state block a highway? It has a duty to regulate traffic. We are saying open it, but regulate,” a Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said after the Haryana Government counsel said the state was in the process of filing an appeal against the July 10 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court directing it to open the highway in seven days.

The Bench was hearing the Haryana Government’s petition challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order to constitute a committee headed by a former HC judge to investigate the death of farmer Shubhkaran Singh during a clash with Haryana security personnel in February. The Haryana Police set up barricades at the Ambala-New Delhi national highway in February when the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) announced to march towards Delhi to press for their demands, including a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

More than five months after the “unlawful sealing of the border between Haryana and Punjab” to prevent farmers from “protesting peacefully”, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had on Wednesday directed Haryana to open the Shambhu border on an experimental basis to prevent inconvenience to the public. A Bench of Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia and Justice Vikas Bahl said it was apparent that the “lifelines of the state of Punjab” were blocked on mere apprehensions, while “the cause has dwindled”.

As such, it would be in the public’s interest that “the state of Haryana now does not continue to block the highways for all time to come”, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had said.