Treatment of protesting farmers undemocratic: Former judges

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 2

Making it clear that peaceful protest against a grievance was constitutionally protected right of every citizen, three former judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued a joint statement asserting that the treatment meted out to the farmers peacefully moving to Delhi by the Haryana Police was not only undemocratic, but brutal as well.

Former Acting Chief Justice, Justice Mehtab Singh Gill, Justice Ranjit Singh and Justice Nawab Singh asserted the indiscriminate use of water cannons in harsh cold winter, batons and other means would put any democratic government to shame. In return, the farmers could be seen offering water and food to the baton-yielding police.

Questioning the urgency displayed by the Central government in introducing the farm laws by first issuing the ordinances, the former judges asserted the whole nation was then in lockdown condition and fighting the serious pandemic engulfing the entire world.

“Was there any urgency or emergency to take the route through ordinances? We see none. Such law could have waited for consideration in detail during the Parliament session. The government then bulldozed it way through to pass these laws in Parliament. The Bills were passed in the Rajya Sabha in a very questionable manner by voice vote against the demand of division,” the judges asserted.

They added it was imperative for the government to take into consideration the concern of the farmers before enacting these laws. Their apprehension that these laws would benefit the corporates could not be easily discounted. As such, the government was required to realise the difficulty of the small and marginal farmers to deal with the big corporates. “Corporates, maybe a few, would benefit. But struggling farmers burdened with unending debts would lose their land and livelihood”, they added.