New Delhi: Announcing its ruling, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain the bunch of petitions demanding investigation into the violence in the national capital on Republic Day during the farmers’ tractor rally. A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian was hearing the petitions that were filed against the tractor rally on Republic Day.
“We are sure that the government is inquiring into it. We read a statement by the Prime Minister that the law is taking its own course. We don’t want to interfere in this case. You make a representation before the government,” CJI Bobde said.
The Supreme Court also refused to entertain a plea seeking setting up of a committee headed by a former apex court judge to conduct a time-bound probe into the violence during tractor rally in Delhi on the Republic Day.
The top court bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde asked lawyer Vishal Tiwari, who had filed the PIL, to give a representation to the central government for taking necessary action.
Tiwari sought setting up of a commission headed by a retired apex court judge to inquire into the incident. The apex court also refused to entertain two similar pleas related to the tractor rally violence and asked the petitioners to file representation with the government.
The tractor parade on January 26 that was to highlight the demands of farmer unions to repeal three new farm laws dissolved into anarchy on the streets of the national capital as thousands of protesters broke through barriers, fought with the police, overturned vehicles and hoisted a religious flag from the ramparts of the iconic Red Fort.
The supreme court also dismissed another PIL, filed by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, seeking direction to the media not to declare farmers as “terrorists” without any evidence. Sharma had claimed in his plea that there was a planned conspiracy to sabotage the protest by farmers.
Last month, the Supreme Court had stayed the implementation of the contentious farm laws till further orders and constituted a four-member committee to make recommendations to resolve the impasse.