Supreme Court to hear on Centre's plea seeking injunction against farmers' tractor parade today

New Delhi, Jan 20: The Supreme Court will on Wednesday resume hearing on the Centre's application seeking injunction against protesting farmers' tractor parade on Republic Day in Delhi. Farmer unions are insisting on holding a tractor rally on January 26 to press for their demand to repeal the three farm laws.

On Monday, a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde had told the Centre that it cannot be the first authority to deal with it, instead the onus falls on Delhi Police on whether to allow farmers' entry into Delhi. The bench also comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and Vineet Saran said that it is seized of the issue of farm laws and "we have not said anything on police powers".

It can be seen that the Centre, through the Delhi Police, has said that any proposed march or protest which seeks to disrupt and disturb the Republic Day celebrations will cause an "embarrassment to the nation".

During the hearing conducted through video-conferencing, the bench said who should be allowed to enter Delhi and who should not be allowed has to be dealt with by the police as the court is not the "first authority".

Earlier on January 12, the top court had stayed the implementation of the contentious new farm laws till further orders and constituted the four-member committee to make recommendations to resolve the impasse over them between the Centre and farmers' unions protesting at Delhi borders.