NEW DELHI: The Haryana government has knocked the doors of the Supreme Court by filing an appeal challenging the high court order asking it to remove within a week the barricading at the Shambhu border near Ambala where farmers have been camping since February 13.
The Punjab and Haryana HC had on July 10, ordered the Haryana government to clear within a week the barricading at the Shambhu border.
In its appeal filed before the apex court, the Haryana government has cited law and order situation for the blockade. As the appeal has just been filed today by the Haryana government, it was expected that it would likely to come up for hearing in 3-4 days, as per court sources.
Also it is significant to note that on July 12, while hearing a similar matter, the top had court asked the Haryana government to remove the barricades and questioned its authority on blocking the highway.
The Supreme Court was hearing the SLP filed by the Haryana government, challenging the judicial probe earlier ordered by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in connection with the death of a 22-year-old protesting farmer, Shubhkaran Singh, during the farmers protest at the Punjab-Haryana border. In this regard, the Supreme Court had in April also refused to stay the judicial probe.
Singh, 21, a native of Bhatinda, died on February 21 on the Punjab-Haryana border, at Khanauri, while during a violent clash between the protesting farmers and the State police personnel.
Unfortunately, he got caught in the violent clash and subsequently died, when some protesting farmers were allegedly trying to move towards the barricades. They were stopped by security personnel from crossing the state border and marching to Delhi.
The Punjab & Haryana High Court's Acting Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji had passed the order of directing a setting up a three-member judicial inquiry panel headed by retired HC judge Jaishree Thakur to probe into the various aspects of the case.
The Supreme Court also criticized earlier the Haryana authority's decision to block the highway. A two-judge bench of the top court, led by Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, had questioned, how can a State block a highway? "The government has a duty to regulate traffic. We are saying open it, but regulate," the bench told the lawyer appearing for Haryana government.
The apex court passed these remarks, after being apprised to it by a lawyer from the Haryana government that it was in the process of filing an appeal against the July 10 Punjab and Haryana High Court order directing the state to open the highway within seven days.