Centre fined for apathy on farmer suicides

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, October 30

The Supreme Court today imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the Centre for not responding to its query on the plight of farmers and the problem of suicides among them.

The Social Justice Bench comprising Justices MB Lokur and UU Lalit slapped the cost as the government failed to file an affidavit on the impact of the National Policy for Farmers 2007 and stating if the policy required any review. The Bench had passed the order on August 21 giving six weeks to the Centre for the purpose. But the government sought further time today, prompting the court to impose the fine for wasting its time by seeking repeated adjournments.

At the last hearing, it had asked the government to deal with the problem of farmers’ suicide more seriously, instead of merely trying to bring down the number of such incidents.