The Supreme Court committee has made a big disclosure regarding the three agricultural laws that were repealed last year. A Supreme Court-appointed committee to study the three agricultural laws, terming them beneficial to farmers, had recommended not to repeal them. In November last year, Parliament repealed all three laws.
The report submitted to the apex court on 19 March 2021 was made public on Monday. The three-member committee had also suggested several changes in laws, including freedom for states to legalize the Minimum Support Price (MSP) system.
Anil Ghanvat, one of the committee members, released the findings of the report at a press conference in the national capital. Swatantra Bharat Party president Ghanvat said, “On March 19, 2021, we submitted the report to the Supreme Court. We wrote to the apex court thrice requesting it to release the report. But we didn’t get any reply.”
He said, “I am releasing this report today. All three laws have been repealed. So it has no relevance now.” According to Ghanvat, the report will help in formulating policies for the agriculture sector in future.
Ghanvat said the committee, in its report, said that “repealing or prolonged suspension of these laws would be unfair against the silent majority who support agricultural laws”.
He said that 73 farmers’ organizations presented their views before the committee, out of which 61 organizations representing 3.3 crore farmers supported the agricultural laws. Ghanwat said 40 organizations agitating under the banner of United Kisan Morcha (SKM) did not submit their views despite repeated requests.
The two other members of the committee are agricultural economist and former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices Ashok Gulati and agricultural economist Pramod Kumar Joshi. In his address to the nation on November 19, Prime Minister August 2, 2021
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the withdrawal of all three agriculture laws, saying the government could not convince the protesting farmers about the benefits of agricultural sector reforms.
The three agricultural laws that were repealed were the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Price Assurance and Agreement on Agricultural Services Act and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act. Repeal of all three agricultural laws was one of the major demands of 40 farmer organizations protesting on the borders of Delhi.