The Punjab Government on Friday told the Supreme Court that it has cleared the protesting farmers from the Shambhu and Khanauri borders near Haryana and farmers’ leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal who was on fast unto death also broke his fast.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotishwar Singh was informed by the Advocate General of Punjab Gurminder Singh that the national highway was free for traffic movement.
Punjab government has cleared the protestors first from the site and Haryana government has cleared the highway and restored the traffic.
“I said it, highways are not supposed to be (occupied). National highways are lifeline of the country,” said Justice Kant.
With regard to Dallewal, Punjab’s Advocate General said he has ended his hunger protest (started in November last year) today.
“Mr. Dallewal accepted water today and broke fast,” Singh said.
The top court also declined to entertain a contempt petition filed against the Punjab authorities for clearing the protesters in alleged violation of a status quo order passed by the apex court.
To this, the bench told the lawyer who filed the contempt petition, “We have been asking them to clear highway, the contempt petition is misconceived.”
The advocate then withdrew the contempt petition from the court.
The bench also dropped the contempt proceedings initiated earlier against the Punjab Chief Secretary and the DGP for not taking steps to hospitalise Dallewal, who was on fast-unto-death then.
It further directed the High Powered Committee, constituted by it to hold negotiations with the protesting farmers and the governments, to file its supplementary report.
The top court had earlier asked Punjab authorities to swiftly tackle the health situation of Dallewal who was on fast unto death.
It had also asked the states of Punjab and Haryana to continue their meetings with the protesting farmers, to persuade them to clear the highway along Shambhu border.
In February last year, the Haryana government had set up barricades on the Ambala-New Delhi national highway farmers bodies announced that farmers would march to Delhi in support of various demands, including a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
