Will Release Report If Supreme Court Doesn't: Farm Laws Panel Member

With the centre deciding to repeal the three farm laws, a member of the Supreme Court-appointed panel, which has already submitted its report on these contentious laws to the Supreme Court, today said the purpose of the report is over now and will release the report in the public domain, if the Supreme Court does not do so.

Shetkari Sanghatana chief Anil J Ghanwat said the panel's report was in "favour of farmers" and will decide next week on releasing the report to the public.

The three-member Supreme Court-appointed committee, after studying the three farm laws and consultation with stakeholders, had submitted its report to the Supreme Court on March 19.

Since then, the report has not been made public yet despite Mr Ghanwat having requested the Chief Justice of India in a letter on September 1 to release the report, saying its "recommendations will pave the way to resolve the ongoing farmers agitation."

In a big move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation this morning announced he would cancel all the three central farm laws.

"If these three farm laws are withdrawn, this report has no sense at all... If the Supreme Court does not make it public, I will make it public," Mr Ghanwat said.

The committee has spent three months preparing the report. "This should not go into the dustbin. It should not happen. I will make it public," he said.

The committee will meet on Monday and take views of all three members on releasing the report in the public domain, he added. 

"The other members are academicians and professionals and they don't have anything to do with the farmers' movement. But I am a farmers' leader. I have to take care of farmers. I will take the initiative of releasing the panels' report in the public domain in the interest of farmers. The farmers, press and the government should know recommendations made by the panel," he said, adding that the report was in favour of farmers.

The report will be a good reference for framing future laws on agriculture, he added.

On what will be the fate of the report, the panel's other member Ashok Gulati, agricultural economist and former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural, said, "It is the prerogative of the Supreme Court whether it wants to make it public or not."

With the government's decision to cancel the new farm laws, the purpose of the report ends, he said.

It has been over a year now that farmers are protesting at Delhi's border against the three farm laws.