Farmers Can’t Block Roads Indefinitely, Must Respond In 3 Weeks: Supreme Court

Picture courtesy Hindustan Times

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday granted farmer unions three weeks’ time to file their response on a petition seeking removal of protesters from the roads.

Farmers have been protesting against the three farm laws along border points of Delhi for almost a year.

“Ultimately some solution has to be found. We are not averse to their right to protest even when a legal challenge is pending, but roads cannot be blocked,” the two-judge bench of Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh stated.

A Noida resident had filed a petition in which he asked for the removal of protesters from the roads around national capital region.

The next hearing on the matter will be on December 7.

The Supreme Court had taken a grim view of the prolonged blockade of highways by protesting farmers earlier also.

“Redressal can be through judicial form, agitation, or parliamentary debates. But how can highways be blocked and this happen perpetually? Where does it end?” Justice Kaul remarked.