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The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the centre on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of the three contentious farm laws which is being opposed tooth and nail mainly by thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, women farmers are learning to drive tractors to take part in the proposed rally in the national capital on Republic Day.
Here are the top developments of the day:
1. The Supreme Court sought response of the centre on a PIL challenging the constitutional validity of newly enacted three farm laws on grounds including that Parliament lacked power to make legislations on the subject. The plea also raised questions over the validity of 'the Constitution (3rd Amendment Act) of 1954' which allegedly empowered the centre to frame the controversial laws on agriculture. A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, while issuing notice to the ministry of law and justice on the PIL of lawyer ML Sharma, said it would hear on January 11 all the pleas challenging the new farm laws as also the ones raising issues related to the ongoing farmers' protest at Delhi borders. In a hearing conducted through video conferencing, the bench, also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, took note of the petition which also contended that the subject 'agriculture' has wrongly been put in the concurrent list in the Constitution by Parliament in 1954. The top court has already decided to hear pleas of RJD lawmaker from Rajya Sabha, Manoj Jha and DMK Rajya Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu, Tiruchi Siva, and one by Rakesh Vaishnav of Chhattisgarh Kisan Congress against the three laws -- Farmers'' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; Farmers'' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020.