RJP MP, Manoj Jha, Challenges New Farmers Acts in Supreme Court
Farmer bills criticised over constitutionality
The newly passed and controversial Farmers' Acts have drawn significant backlash from the general public. RJP MP, Manoj Jha is the latest politician to challenge the Acts in the Supreme Court. Before him, Congress MP from Thrissur and a Rajya Sabha member from the DMK, Tiruchi Siva had also questioned the constitutionality of the Acts.
The three newly passed laws which the MP challenged are:
The Acts are "discriminatory and manifestly arbitrary"
The petition filed by Jha terms these laws as "unconstitutional" on the grounds that they were "discriminatory and manifestly arbitrary" as well as against the Basic Structure of the Constitution.
The petition stated,
"The Impugned Acts encourages corporatization of India Agriculture which is the lifeline of the poor farmers and key to the survival of the nation’s agriculture sector. The Impugned Acts primarily intends to sacrifice the interest of the farmers and leave them at the mercy of the Sponsors without any proper dispute resolution mechanism."
The Acts would put farmers in a vulnerable position
One of the contentions raised in the petition is that these laws would put the farmers in a vulnerable position. They would effectively pit the farmers against big corporations and place them in a position with disproportionately low bargaining power.
The Acts do not provide for a standard Minimum Selling Price (MSP)
Another issue with these laws is that they do not provide for a standard Minimum Selling Price (MSP). The pricing of produce is stipulated to be governed and determined by agreements entered into between the corporations and farmers.
With regards to this, the petition stated,
"...instead of ensuring the MSP, the Act intends to corporatize peasant agriculture and erode the existing legal safeguards that prevent the direct invasion of rural agriculture market by the monopoly corporate forces."
No adequate dispute resolution mechanisms provided
The new laws also do not have any provision for adequate dispute resolution mechanisms. Conciliation has been decided to be used by the parties to resolve the disputes with an appeal lying with the collector.
Agriculture comes under State List of the Seventh Schedule of Constitution
The other ground for challenging these laws is that agriculture is an entry in the State List of the Constitution. This means that Parliament does not have the power to legislate on the subject. Therefore, the new laws are passed in "blatant breach of the principles of Federal structure" of the Constitution.
