Editor's Pick: SC imposes rule by committee

The Hindu Newsletter - Newsletter - subject [The Hindu Logo]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Youtube]( [Linkedin]( [Instagram]( Wednesday 13, January 2021 [alt_text]( Editor's Pick SC imposes rule by committee [alt_text]( tra(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.) The Supreme Court yesterday[stayed the implementation of the three controversial farm laws](, calling the order ‘extraordinary’ and a ‘victory for fair play’. While the stay on the farm laws was welcomed by the farmers groups, who have been holding protests on the borders of Delhi for over 45 days now, the court’s chosen method of resolving the deadlock - by setting up an expert committee to examine the laws - was not. The farmer unions [dismissed the committee]( as “a government ploy”, and pointed out that all its four members have actively advocated the reforms. One of the proposed committee members, food and agricultural policy expert Pramod Kumar, has previously characterised the farmers’ repeal demand as “bizarre”. Another member, agricultural economist Ashok Gulati, has been a long-time advocate of farm reforms and welcomed the Centre’s announcement of the new laws as “big, bold steps in the right direction which will benefit both farmers and consumers”. The other two members of the committee — Bhupinder Singh Mann and Anil Ghanwat — head pro-reforms farmers groups. Yet, during the hearing yesterday, when some counsel said the composition of the committee should be acceptable to all, the Chief Justice said, "We are not catering to everyone's idea of what is a good committee. We will decide the composition of the committee to help us decide the issue." Elsewhere, the court made it clear that the farmer’s bodies “shall'' participate in the discussions of the committee, despite several of them already signing a declaration that they had no intention of accepting or holding discussions with an SC-mandated committee. They continue to remain open however, on engaging with the government with a fresh round of talks set to take place on Friday (January 15). They have also said they would like to engage more with the SC itself, and had asked for more hearings so that the court could hear their [objections to the laws]( and then deliberate on the matter. In pushing the matter to a committee now, both those forms of engagement, political and legal, may be closed. The Committee is supposed to hear all stakeholders and determine "which provisions of the three farm laws required deletion". If the committee is to then perform this quasi-legislative function and it finds no acceptance among the farmers groups, what is the way forward and what will the government’s stand now be when talks resume? As [The Hindu editorial points out](, the SC is trying to impose a political compromise before adjudicating on the issue. There are more questions than answers as this story develops and that makes it our top pick of the day. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor's Pick and more. [Click here]( Try out The Hindu's daily news quiz In 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a blockade and severed diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing the tiny Gulf country of what? 1. Supporting terrorism 2. Funding a nuclear-weapons programme 3. Violating Human Rights 4. Market conservatism To find out the answer and play the full quiz, [click here]( The Big Story [Farmers’ protest | Supreme Court stays implementation of 3 controversial farm laws]( [alt_text]( From the Front Page [alt_text]( [Farmer leaders reject Supreme Court panel as a ‘govt. ploy’]( [alt_text]( [No option to select between two vaccines, says]( govt. From the Opinion Pages [alt_text]( [Reclaiming SAARC from the ashes of 2020]( [alt_text]( [The debilitating side-effect of a flawed vaccine trial]( Today's Editorials [Imposing a compromise: On courts]( and laws [Strained ties: On Puducherry sta](ndoff You are receiving this email because you are a user of [thehindu.com]( If you do not wish to receive any such emails, [unsubscribe here.](mailto:rm-0b44517hbf2f90kaup33rtbysa8hkgx@newsalert.thehindu.com?subject=Unsubscribe&body=You will be unsubscribed from our mailing list.) To ensure you continue to receive emails from The Hindu in your inbox, please add newsletters.th@newsalert.thehindu.com to your contact. If you can't see the mailer, please [click here.]( Group Sites [The Hindu]( | [இந்து தமிழ் திசை]( | [Business Line]( | [BL on Campus]( | [Sportstar]( | [Frontline]( | [The Hindu Centre]( | [Images]( | [roofandfloor]( | [Classifieds]( Copyright @ 2021 ,THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. [About Us]( | [Contact Us]( | [Digital Subscription](