NEW DELHI: It has become a fashion to fault farmers in recent times for Delhi’s annual air pollution during the winter months, Supreme Court judge Justice Surya Kant remarked on Saturday, November 13, 2021, while hearing a case relating to rising pollution levels.
Justice Surya Kant, who is himself from a farming family, made the observation during a special hearing by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana with Justice D Y Chandrachud and himself. When solicitor general Tushar Mehta brought up the aspect of stubble burning by farmers of Punjab, Haryana and UP as a reason for air pollution in Delhi, the bench stopped him from making further submission and said: “Everyone is bashing the farmers. In Delhi there was a ban imposed on fire crackers, what happened to that? What has Delhi Police done? Tell us about that.”
At this, Mehta intervened to say that stubble-burning was just part of the problem. “We are not criticising farmers at all and agree that a result-oriented approach is required,” he said. Mehta told the bench that the central government was not blaming the farmers and explained the scheme wherein farmers are given machines to pull out stubble which are given free of cost to marginalised farmers. He said the statutory authority at the Centre had already directed states to levy fine on farmers who resorted to stubble-burning.
Mehta submitted that 2 lakh machines were available in the market and farmers who cannot afford could take it from cooperative society for free. But the bench said the problem is not the availability of machines but the enforcement of policy. It asked Mehta whether the government had incentivised the scheme and seek details like how many cooperative societies have been set up, how many machines supplied, and the capital cost involved in providing the machines.
Justice Chandrachud also told Mehta to submit information on when the intervention to prevent stubble-burning began. “This year, monsoon got delayed, hence, the window period for a farmer to sow (for) the kharif season is less compared to what it was last year or probably the year before. You should tell us when did cooperative societies reach out to farmers for aiding them in removal of stubble,” he said. Justice Surya Kant agreed with Justice Chandrchud and said both he and the CJI have been farmers and therefore they are aware of the problems faced by them.
CJI says he learnt English in class 8
Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Saturday said he is not a sophisticated speaker and learnt English in Class 8. The comment was in response to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s clarification that he was not suggesting that only farmers are responsible for air pollution in Delhi-NCR. “I don’t have good English for expressing words,” said the CJI. This was in response to Mehta’s remark that “The language in which our response as lawyers is taken might send the wrong message which was not the intention.” Mehta said he too learnt English in Class 8 and studied in Gujarati medium.