90 Per Cent Farmers Not In Favour Of Continuance Of Protests After SC Stay On Farm Laws: Bar Council Of India

A day after the Supreme Court put a stay on the implementation of the three Central farm laws, the Bar Council of India (BCI) claimed on Wednesday (13 January) that "90 per cent of the farmers are not in favour of the protests".

In a statement, BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said, "Everybody knows that 90 per cent of the peace loving farmers are not in favour of continuance of agitation after the stay order of the Supreme Court, but persons with vested interests are trying to fulfil their own political ambition even at the cost of de-stablising the country.

"The nation is really thankful to our apex court which has realised the seriousness of the situation and has interfered in the matter with the objective of saving the country from lawlessness."

The BCI also urged that the honest, sincere and sensible citizens should now come forward and convince the agitating farmers to suspend their protest till the final judgement of the apex court.

"We fail to understand as to why those who are making scandalous and contemptuous comments in media did not appear before the court to put across their stand," the BCI statement read.

"For any law abiding citizen, the only recourse available is to move the Supreme Court and request for modification of the order, if at all someone has any ground against the Constitution of the committee. But these so-called protesters do not want a solution to the problem, rather their sole motive is to exploit the agitation and mislead the agitating farmers," it added.

The Supreme Court had said on Tuesday (12 January) that the extraordinary order of staying the implementation of the farm laws will encourage the farmers' bodies to convince their members to get back to their livelihoods, both in order to protect their own lives and health and to protect the lives and properties of others.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde and comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian observed that the negotiations between the farmers' bodies and the government have not yielded any result so far.

"Therefore, we are of the view that the constitution of a committee of experts in the field of agriculture to negotiate between the farmers' bodies and the government of India may create a congenial atmosphere," it said in its order.

Justifying the stay on the implementation of the farm laws, the top court said: "We deem it fit to pass the following interim order, with the hope and expectation that both parties will take this in the right spirit and attempt to arrive at a fair, equitable and just solution to the problems."

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)