The Supreme Court, today, suspended the implementation of the three controversial farm laws until further orders and formed a four-member committee to hold talks and resolve the issue of agitators and the Government. Following are the members of the committee formed by the Court:

• BS Mann, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU)
• Ashok Gulati, Agricultural Scientist
• Pramod K Jishi, International Food Policy Research Institute
• Anil Ghanwant, Shetkari Sangathan

When I joined the bar, somebody told me that the District Court is the court of law as it has very discretion except to implement the law. High Court are Courts of Justice as in India the courts have the jurisdiction of Chancery Courts (of England) as well. On this when I asked about Supreme Court the reply was epic and proves from time to time. He said Supreme Court was Panchayat. The traditional court which used to exist in every village and used to decide on the basis of common sense. Today’s order proves that preposition once again and I would say no more. Though the situation can be summed up in another way as well.

Dr. Ambedkar was a very learned intellectual. In the first volume of his complete published work he states that the makers of political constitutions must take account of social forces is a fact which is recognized by no less a person than Ferdinand Lassalle, the friend and co-worker of Karl Marx. In addressing a Prussian audience in 1862 Lassalle said:

“The constitutional questions are in the first instance not questions of right but questions of might. The actual constitution of a country has its existence only in the actual condition of force which exists in the country : hence political constitutions have value and permanence only when they accurately express those conditions of forces which exist in practice within a society.”

Therefore when the Central Government failed to maintain rule of law, Supreme Court is trying to establish the rule of law by offering an olive branch. It is an unusual situation in which a pan India law has been stayed not because any constitutional infirmity has been pointed out but because is seems prudent at the moment under pressure from few hundred agitators. Court has asked Attorney General to file an affidavit asserting that anti-national elements have joined this protest. (See picture where a release of a terrorist is sought)

However till the time of writing, the leaders of the agitation have rejected the offer. Their lawyers namely Prashant Bhushan, Colin Gonsalves, Dushyant Dave and HS Phoolka did not show up for hearing today.

Congress supporting channel AajTak is giving the daily platform to the agitators to vent their grievances. One member of the aforesaid committee Anil Ghanwant was grilled on the show for earlier being supporter of these farm laws.

So far it is neither here nor there.