The Delhi High Court emphasized that police would have chosen to partially open the border based on “actionable intelligence information” and declined to consider a request for the total removal of the roadblock at the Singhu border connecting Haryana with Delhi on Monday.
Following a march by Punjabi farmers demanding a legal guarantee for the minimum support price for crops, the border was closed on February 13. Following the farmers’ decision to call off their march, a portion of the border was opened to allow vehicle traffic.
Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela’s bench allowed Delhi and Gurgaon-based petitioners Shankar Mor, Sachin Aneja, and Eknoor Singh to submit a request to open the border to law enforcement. It chastised them for going straight to the court.
“Maybe they [police] have some intelligence and actionable information. We cannot take a chance…You and I cannot decide this. We do not know. …If the movement is restricted, they can take control immediately. Otherwise, it will take a very long time to take control of the situation. …We have not gone there, so we have no idea of what is happening,” the petitioners’ attorney, Sachin Miglani, was informed by the bench.
“You have straight away marched [to the court] without preferring a representation. We cannot direct the government of Haryana [to decide the representation]. The Delhi Police may decide. The problem today is we have become so accessible. Anyone can file a petition. It is very cumbersome to file a representation to the state and get an answer. So everyone comes directly to us. Make a representation, let us know what their stand is.”
Days after the Supreme Court formed a committee chaired by former Punjab and Haryana high court judge Nawab Singh to peacefully resolve the complaints of protesting farmers, the court declined to hear the plea, stating that the matter shouldn’t be politicized.
The petitioner claimed that no farmer had demonstrated since February and that the public was being inconvenienced by the National Highway-44 roadblock, which had been in place for more than seven months.