1. A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuiyan will hear the petition that seeks instructions to the Punjab and Haryana governments as well as the Union government to remove the protesting farmers from the highway.

2. The court should also order the protesting farmers to maintain law and order, the petition said.

3. It added that blocking highways this way is against the fundamental rights of the people. It also contends that it is a crime under the National Highway Act and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

4. In such a situation, legal action should be taken against those blocking the highway, the petition read.

5. On Sunday, protesting farmers postponed their march to Delhi midway after the Haryana police use tear gas and water cannons at the Shambhu border. The farmers have said they would announce the next step after stock-taking.

6. In February this year, the Haryana government closed its border with Punjab at Shambhu in to restrict the farmers’ march towards Delhi.

7.  At the time, the farmers had renewed their agitation on the lines of the historic 2020 anti-farm law protests to pressurise the Centre on their demands — including the legalising of Minimum Support Price for crops.

8. The frequent closure of the Shambhu border by protesting farmers has been a matter of constant inconvenience to Haryana.

9. Earlier, Union minister and former Chief Minister of Haryana ML Khattar had commented on it. Calling it a “big problem”, he had even said those sitting on the Punjab side of the border are not real farmers but people intent on destabilising elected governments.

10. In August, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered the state government to remove the barricades and the matter is pending in the Supreme Court. 
     

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