NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday restored a dismissed public interest litigation (PIL), which challenged the constitutional validity of the Centre’s three farm sector reform laws on the grounds that Parliament did not have powers to legislate on agriculture, as it is a state subject.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde had last month issued notice to the Centre on a batch of petitions against the farm laws. However, it had dismissed the PIL filed by lawyer M L Sharma against the same laws and asked him to approach the high court instead.
During a brief hearing on Thursday, the bench said, “We will restore and keep your matter for admission after two weeks.” Sharma pointed out that he could not argue it on the day it was dismissed. “If I could not appear before the court and argue myself, then it amounts to non-appearance,” he reasoned.
“The point on which we had dismissed it was that there was no cause of action,” the bench said.
Earlier, the court had decided to hear pleas of RJD lawmaker Manoj Jha and DMK MP from Tamil Nadu Tiruchi Siva, and one by Rakesh Vaishnav of the Chhattisgarh Kisan Congress against the three farm laws.
Sharma, in his PIL, has said that these laws ran counter to Article 246 of the Constitution as agriculture falls in the state list instead of the Union List.
Matter of jurisdiction
Can Parliament enact a law on a subject that belongs to state list, is the constitutional question raised by the PIL