HC orders State Government to submit report on farmers' suicidal deaths

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The Aurangabad Bench of Bombay High Court comprising Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice R M Joshi has ordered the State Government to submit the report submitted by the then divisional commissioner to it regarding the suicidal deaths of farmers from the region, in the next hearing. The former divisional commissioner had prepared the report on the basis of survey reports submitted to him by eight district collectors regarding farmers suicide in Marathwada during 2022-23. The next hearing on the ‘suo moto public interest litigation’ will be held on June 16.

It may be noted that the eight collectors had prepared the report by surveying in their respective jurisdictions. They surveyed more than 10 lakh farmers families from Marathwada and then submitted the report to the then divisional commissioner. “More than 1 lakh farmers, during the survey, had informed that they are very depressed and are thinking of ending their lives owing to debts, drought, loss of standing crops, downpour and non-issuance of assured prices to their agri-produce. Three lakh farmers were listed under the sensitive category as their financial condition was very serious,” stated the report to the state government. This was brought to the notice of the High Court. Hence the bench gave the above verdict.

It may be noted that taking cognizance of a news published in one English daily stating that around 1,500 farmers from Marathwada and Vidarbha regions had committed suicide in 2023. Taking cognizance of it, the Bombay High Court’s Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arun Pednekar filed a ‘Suo Moto’ PIL in the local bench and ordered to serve notices to the respondents including the agriculture secretary of the Central Government and chief secretary of the State Government on February 9, 2024. They were ordered to submit an affidavit by April 2 mentioning what measures they had taken to prevent farmers suicides; to redress their grievances; and the survey report mentioning total number of farmers suicide.

Adv Devdutt Palodkar and Adv Rahul Karpe were appointed as the friend of the court (amicus curiae). But they failed to submit the affidavit. Hence the above High Court bench decided to give them time to submit the affidavits till April 17 and also instructed that if they failed to do so then penal action would be initiated against the Central and State Governments.

The chief government pleader Amarjeet Singh Girase represented the State Government and Rahul Bagul represented the Central Government.

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No reduction in suicidal deaths in 17 years

Earlier, the Bombay High Court has ordered instructing the government to prevent farmers suicides in 2005, but even after passing of 17 years, the ratio of suicidal deaths of farmers had not been reduced. Hence immediate measures needed to be taken in this regard, stated the HC bench. Adv Palodkar submitted clippings of newspapers mentioning that 8,719 farmers had committed suicide in Aurangabad district from 2012 to 2022 to the court. Accordingly, he requested the court to direct the respondents to submit the report to it. Hence the above verdict was given by the bench.