The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday constituted a high-powered committee to safeguard food grains lying in the Adani factory at Ferozepur, Punjab.
The high court heard the plea of Adani Wilmar, who has prayed for a direction to the state authorities to ensure that free movement of food-grains etc, is not hindered from and to its facility at Ferozepur amid framer’s agitation across the country against the farm laws.
Justice Manjari Nehru, while quoting Abraham Lincoln, said: “Malice towards none with charity for all” has noted that “All the parties concerned will have to think out of the box and let appropriate steps be taken expeditiously to prevent further loss/wastage of about eight thousand metric tonnes of food-grains lying stored in the facility of the petitioner’s firm at Ferozepur, which a country like India can ill afford. Since, the learned counsel for the petitioner-firm has also submitted that on account of the approaching monsoon season, they are likely to incur heavy losses and damage to the food-grains lying stored in their facility, it is expected and hoped that all efforts would be made by the quarters concerned.”
The court in its order observed that, “Agitation has thrown up an extraordinary situation, and more so in the states of Punjab and Haryana. It is not simply a law and order problem, and courts are battling to reconcile the competing rights and interests of all the stakeholders.”
The court taking into consideration the fact that delay in plying the food grains would result in damaging the food-grains, which are lying stored in the facility of the Adani Wilmart’s Firm, formed a committee headed by Principal Secretary Home, Government of Punjab, including Additional Director General of Police, Law & Order Punjab, Deputy Commissioner, Ferozepur, Senior Superintendent of Police, Ferozepur amongst other officers to find a way forward to put an end to the piquant situation.
The court has also noted in its order that, “State of Punjab affidavit says that state is doing its best to ensure that the law takes its own course and no untoward incident happens. As noticed earlier, this is not simply a law and order problem but is an extraordinary situation requiring an extraordinary response.”
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During the course of hearing, counsel appearing for the State indicated that the State is also open to the idea of involving some senior officials of the State of Punjab to find a way forward, as they too would like to see an early end to the stalemate, since they were conscious of the fact that any further delay would result in damaging the food-grains, which were lying stored in the facility of the Adani’s firm.
The Counsel for the petitioner- Adani Wilmart were Adv. Ashish Prasad and Adv. Rohit Sharma, Partner at Economic Laws Practice along with Adv. Abhinav Sood.
Source: ILNS