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2017 Supreme(SC) 1425
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
JAGDISH SINGH KHEHAR, CJI., D.Y. CHANDRACHUD, J.
Citizens Resource and Action Initiative (CRANTI) - Petitioner
Versus
State of Gujarat & Ors. - Respondents
Special Leave Petition (C) No.29910 of 2014
Decided On : 06-07-2017
For the Petitioners:Colin Gonsalves, Sr. Adv., Choudhary Ali Zia Kabir, For Ms. Jyoti Mendiratta, Advocates, Jetendra Singh, Ms. Kalpana Sabharwal, Ms. Priyanka Singh, V.K. Kaushik, For Yash Pal Dhingra, Mukesh Verma, Pawan Kumar Shukla, Bikash Kumar Sinha For Yash Pal Dhingra, Advocates.
For the Respondents:K.K. Venugopal, AG, P.S. Narasimha, ASG, Ajit Kumar Sinha, Sr. Adv., Mukul Singh, Rajiv Nanda, Mukul Singh, R.B. Yadav, For Mr. M.K. Maroria, Advocates.
For the RBI :Kuldeep S. Parihar, H.S. Parihar, Advocate.
For the State of AP :Guntur Prabhakar, Ms. Prerna Singh, Advocates.
For the State of Assam :Shuvodeep Roy, Advocate.
For the State of Chhattisgarh :Aniruddha P. Mayee, Avnish M. Oza, Advocates.
For the State of Gujarat :Ms. Hemantika Wahi, Ms. Jesal Wahi, Ms. Mamta Singh, Advocates.
For the State of Haryana :Dr. Monika Gusain, Advocate.
For the State of HP :D.K. Thakur, AAG, V.K. Sharma, Advocate.
For the State of J&K :M. Shoeb Alam, Ms. Fauzia Shakil, Ujjwal Singh, Mojahid Karim Khan, Advocates.
For the State of Jharkhand :Tapesh Kumar Singh, Mohd. Waquas, Aditya Pratap Singh, Advocates.
For the State of Maharashtra :Nishant Katneshwarkar, Arpit Rai, Advocates.
For the State of Manipur :Sapam Bishwajit Metei, Ashok Kumar Singh, Advocates.
For the State of Nagaland :Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, Edward Belho, Z.H. Isaac Haiding, Advocates.
For the State of Odisha :Som Raj Choudhury, Advocate.
For the State of Punjab :Karan Bharihoke, Advocate.
For the State of Rajasthan :S.S. Shamshery, AAG, Amit Sharma, Ankit Raj, Raja Das, Anish Kumar Gupta, R.K. Rajwansh, C. Shekhar Suman, Ms. Deep Shikha, Ms. Ruchi Kohli, Advocates.
For the State of Sikkim :Ms. Aruna Mathur, Avneesh Arputham, Ms. Anuradha Arptham, Amit Arora, (For M/s. Arputham, Aruna & Co.), Advocates.
For the State of TN :B. Balaji, S. Kumar, Vairavan, Advocates.
For the State of Tripura :Gopal Singh, Rituraj Biswas, Advocates.
For the State of Uttarakhand :Saurabh Trivedi, Ashutosh Kumar Sharma, Advocates.
For the State of UP :D.K. Goswami, Adarsh Upadhyay, Advocates.
For the State of WB :Raja Chatterjee, Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, Adeel Ahmed, Runa Bhuyan, Advocates.
For the Govt. of Puducherry :V.G. Pragasam, Prabu Ramasubramanian, Advocates.
For the UT of Andaman & Nicobar Admn. :K.V. Jagdishvaran, Ms. G. Indira, Advocates.
For the Intervenor :Prashant R. Dahat, Dhiraj I. Jain, Puneet Yadav, Venkateswara Rao Anumolu, Varun Thakur, Varinder Kumar Sharma, Ms. Shraddha Saran, Advocates.
For the Impleading Party :Atul Babasaheb Dakh, P. Venkat Reddy, Prashant Kr. Tyagi, For (M/s. Venkat Palwai Law Associates), Vinay Garg, Shreekant N. Terdal, Saurabh Trivedi, Rajiv Yadav, C.K. Sasi, Ms. Anil Katiyar, Ms. Abha R. Sharma, Advocates.
The judgment emphasizes the need for collaborative efforts between the government and stakeholders to strengthen the implementation of agricultural schemes and address the issue of farmers' suicides.
Headnote:
Agricultural Schemes - Central Government's Initiatives to Secure Livelihood - Crop Insurance, Agricultural Credit, Market Reforms, Irrigation Solutions, and Other Schemes - PMFBY, KCC, e-NAM, PMKSY, Agricultural Mechanization, Soil Health Card Scheme, Neem Coated Urea, Land Leasing Laws, Market Reforms, and Farmers' Suicides - [1. Crop Insurance: PMFBY, 2. Agricultural Credit: NA, 3. Kisan Credit Card: NA, 4. RBI's Loan Rescheduling: NA, 5. e-NAM Scheme: NA, 6. Market Reforms: State/U.T. Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2017, 7. Land Leasing Laws: NA, 8. Agro-forestry: NA, 9. Doubling Farmers' Incomes: NA, 10. Soil Health Card Scheme: NA, 11. Neem Coated Urea: NA, 12. Quality Seeds: NA, 13. PMKSY: NA, 14. Agricultural Mechanization: NA, 15. Other Schemes: National Food Security Mission, National Mission for Oilseed and Oil Palm, Mission of Integrated Development for Horticulture, National Mission on Agricultural Extension and technology, 16. Farmers' Suicides: NA]
Fact of the Case:
The Central Government introduced various agricultural schemes to secure the livelihood of farmers, including crop insurance, agricultural credit, market reforms, irrigation solutions, and other initiatives. The petitioner appreciated the schemes but complained about their deficient implementation, linking it to the issue of farmers' suicides.
Finding of the Court:
The Court acknowledged the Central Government's efforts but agreed that the issue cannot be resolved overnight. It allowed the government further time to work on the schemes and suggested eliciting suggestions from the petitioner's counsel to strengthen the implementation strategy.
Issues: Deficient implementation of agricultural schemes and its impact on farmers' suicides.
Ratio Decidendi: The Court recognized the need for time to address the issue and suggested collaboration between the Central Government and the petitioner's counsel to strengthen the implementation strategy.
Final Decision: The Court allowed the Central Government further time to work on the agricultural schemes and suggested collaboration with the petitioner's counsel to strengthen the implementation strategy. The matter was posted for hearing after six months.
ORDER :
We have heard learned counsel for the parties at some length. We were informed by Mr. K.K. Venugopal, learned Attorney General, that a line of action has been adopted by the Central Government to secure the livelihood of individuals involved in agriculture. In this behalf, the following details have been furnished to us :
"1. Crop Insurance : 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana' (PMFBY) instituted, from Kharif season 2016. This scheme is a huge improvement over the previous schemes (National Agriculture Insurance Scheme).
(a) Low premium rates [2% for Kharif, 1.5% for Rabi and 5% for commercial and other crops]. The most competitive premium rate is discovered through a bidding process carried out by the each state government in which public sector and private insurance companies participate, and the difference between the above rates specified in the PMBFY and the marker determined rate is paid by the government (Central Government and State Government share the burden in equal proportion).
(b) The farmers get full insurance as the insured amount is required to be equal to the 'scale of finance', which is determined in each district, so that the farmers do not take insurance for a value less than their cost of production.
(c) All farmers who avail of crop loans (loanee farmers) are mandatorily covered under this scheme and the premium amount is automatically deducted from their loan amounts.
(d) Insurance cover provided for all stages of the crop cycle.
2. To bring more farmers into the institutional fold, the government is taking steps to ensure the availability of crop loans to all farmers through commercial banks, cooperative banks and Regional Rural banks (RRBs). For 2017-2018, the target for agricultural credit is Rs.10 Lakh crores, as compared to Rs.9 lakh crores last year. Short term loans provided at an interest rate of 7%, which is reduced to 4% in case of prompt repayment (interest subvention). The benefit of interest subvention extended to small and marginal farmers having Kisan Credit Cards for a further period of 6 months post harvest, to encourage farmers to store crops in warehouses.
3. Kisan Credit Card (KCC), which is also ATM enabled, has been introduced, to enable farmers to purchase raw materials, and to draw cash.
4. RBI has allowed banks to take a lenient view on rescheduling of loans if crop loss is more than 33%.
5. To enable farmers to get remunerative prices on their produce, the government has introduced the 'e-NAM' scheme [e - National Agricultural Market]. The Government intends to ultimately create a single unified market for the country.
6. Other market reforms are also being undertaken, such as drafting a Model Act called 'State/U.T. Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2017' which ensures multiple market channels to prevent monopolies.
7. Steps are being taken to promote land pooling and discouraging land fallows, by adopting Model land leasing laws. A draft law has been prepared by the Niti Aayog and shared with the States and U.Ts.
8. Current regime for felling and transport of trees in non-forest and private lands is being liberalized to promote agro-forestry and diversity farmers' income basket.
9. The government targets to double farmers' incomes by the year 2022, through the introduction of modern technology and the strengthening of markets. This shifts the focus, from a production approach (i.e. merely increase production without necessarily increasing profitability) to an income approach (i.e. increase incomes and profitability in the agriculture sector).
10. Soil Health Card Scheme is being implemented, to provide each farmer the status of the soil on his/her land, based on 12 parameters.
11. Neem Coated Urea is being promoted, to enhance nitrogen availability to the crops and reduce fertiliser use. The expected saving is 10% of Urea consumption, th
