It Is Not Within Our Jurisdiction To Direct Implementation Of National Policy Framed By The Government, Says SC

The Supreme Court bench of Justices Madan B.Lokur, S.Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, on October 5, dismissed the writ petition filed by the Consortium of Indian Farmers Association, seeking directions to the Government to implement the National Policy for Farmers-2007, framed by the Union Ministry of Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. The Policy was laid on the table of Rajya Saha on November 23, 2007 and Lok Sabha on November 26, 2007, and was accepted by the then UPA Government.

The Central Government had constituted a National Commission on Farmers in 2004 under the Chairmanship of Sompal, and reconstituted it under the Chairmanship of M.S.Swaminathan. The Commission submitted its final report in October 2006. Based on the recommendations made by the Commission, the Centre formulated the National Policy for Farmers, 2007 in consultation with various Central Ministries and Departments and State Governments/Union Territories.

Dismissing the petition, the bench said that it is not within its jurisdiction to generally direct the implementation of the National Policy framed by the Government. “Undoubtedly, the Government is seized of the matter and will implement its policies”, the bench observed.

Curiously, the present Government informed the Rajya Sabha in 2015 that the National Policy for Farmers,  which aims to improve economic viability of farming and increase net income of farmers,  has been already implemented.   However, the Government told the Supreme Court, during the hearing of another case on farmers’ suicides in 2016,  that there was a need to relook the policy.

In this paper, former chairman of NCF, Prof. Swaminathan rues the non-implementation of the Policy during the past 10 years.  Did the Supreme Court place undue trust in the Government’s so-called resolve to revisit or implement the Policy?