Ordered to remove Shambhu barricades, Har moves SC

New Delhi: The Haryana government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the high court order asking it to remove within a week the barricades at the Shambhu border near Ambala where farmers have been camping since February 13.

The state government's appeal, filed through advocate Akshay Amritanshu, has cited law and order situation for the blockade. On July 12, while hearing a related matter, the top court asked the Haryana government to remove the barricades and questioned its authority to block the highway. The Haryana government had set up barricades on the Ambala-New Delhi national highway in February after the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha announced that farmers would march to Delhi in support of various demands, including a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

"How can a state block a highway? It has a duty to regulate traffic. We are saying open it but regulate," a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan had said on June 12 after the counsel informed the bench about the state's intention of filing an appeal in the apex court. Justice Kant had told the state's counsel, "Why do you want to challenge the high court's order? Farmers are also citizens of this country. Give them food and good medical care. They will come, raise slogans and go back. I think you don't commute by road."

The top court had made the observations while hearing a plea of the Haryana government challenging a March 7 Punjab and Haryana High Court decision to set up a committee headed by a former high court judge to probe farmer Shubhkaran Singh's death during a clash between the protesting farmers and Haryana security personnel in February. Singh, 21, a native of Bathinda, was killed and several police personnel were injured in clashes at Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border on February 21.