In an order issued on Tuesday, the court said the decision to suspend the laws “can ease the hurt feelings of farmers and encourage them to come to the negotiating table with confidence and good faith”.
The laws were first passed in September. For decades, the Indian government has offered farmers guaranteed prices for certain crops, providing long-term certainty that allows them to make investments for the next crop cycle. The new laws, initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, have allowed farmers to sell their produce to anyone at any price – giving them more freedom to do things like sell directly to buyers and sell to other states.
But farmers argued that the new rules would make them worse off, making it easier for corporations to exploit agricultural workers and helping large companies to lower prices. Although farmers can sell their crops at high prices if there is demand, on the other hand, they may struggle to reach the minimum price in years when there is a lot of supply on the market.
More than 100,000 people have protested the laws since the end of November.
There were demonstrations that lasted for days along each of New Delhi’s three borders. Farmers blocked roads and set up makeshift camps, some sleeping on the road or in their tractors. They arrived from several different states to participate in the mass protests, sometimes in confrontation with the police.
In the meantime, the government has held eight rounds of negotiations with leaders from more than 30 farmers’ unions that oppose the laws – but the negotiations have gone nowhere.
The stalemate led the Supreme Court to suspend laws on Tuesday and order the formation of a four-member mediation committee to help parties negotiate in a “pleasant atmosphere”. The mediation committee must meet within 10 days and submit its first report within two months of the meeting, in accordance with the order.
The court also said on Tuesday that minimum support price protection would be maintained until further orders – one of the main points of friction between the government and farmers. According to the court order, “no farmer will be dispossessed or deprived of his title as a result of any action taken under the Agricultural Laws.”
However, the umbrella group representing the farmers’ unions, Samyukt Kisan Morcha, repeatedly said it would not participate in any mediation indicated by the court – and reiterated this point after the new order was issued.
“This is the evil of the government that they want to relieve the pressure from their shoulders, so they asked for this Supreme Court committee, which we are opposed to,” farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal told a news conference on Tuesday, adding that the committee members are all pro-government.
The attorney general who represents the government on the issue also criticized the Supreme Court’s order, saying they “vehemently opposed” any provisional suspension.
The laws have been so controversial because agriculture is the main source of livelihood for about 58% of India’s 1.3 billion population, and farmers have been arguing for years for guaranteed minimum prices to rise. They are the country’s largest electoral bloc – making agriculture a central political issue.