The Supreme Court on Saturday witnessed an unprecedented hearing on the issue of providing medical aid to Punjab farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who is on fast-unto-death for over a month at Khanauri border seeking legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) of crops among other demands. The hearing was conducted by a vacation bench of justices Surya Kant and Sudhanshu Dhulia, which gave time till December 31 to the Punjab Government to shift Dallewal to a nearby makeshift hospital, in an attempt to save his life.

Normally, the SC, during winter break, does not have vacation Benches to conduct urgent hearings on emergent issues, and sitting of a Bench on Saturday is unusual. The Bench  pulled up the Punjab Government for allowing the situation to escalate and not complying with its earlier directions to provide medical assistance to Dallewal.

Expressing helplessness, the Punjab Government said it is facing huge resistance from protesting farmers who have encircled Dallewal and are preventing him from being taken to hospital. Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh told the bench that a team of experts visited the protest site and tried to persuade Dallewal to shift to hospital and take medical help.

“He (Dallewal) has refused any kind of medical aid, including (IV) drips, saying that it will undermine the cause of movement,” he said.

This infuriated the bench which blamed the Punjab Government for not doing enough to contain the situation and said the farmer leaders who are not allowing Dallewal to be taken to the hospital are involved in the criminal offence of abetment to suicide.

The SC allowed the Punjab Government to seek any logistic support from the Centre if the situation warrants, and hoped that the state government will comply with its direction of shifting Dallewal to hospital. The Bench said Dallewal is under some kind of “peer pressure” and those farmer leaders who are not allowing him to be shifted to a hospital do not seem to be his well-wishers. “Are they interested in his life or something else? We don’t want to say much and only hope that the Punjab government will comply with our directions,” the Bench said. On Friday, the Bench had issued a notice to the Punjab Government on a contempt petition against its Chief Secretary and the director general of police (DGP) for non-compliance of an order directing that medical aid be provided to Dallewal.

Dallewal has been on an indefinite fast at the Khanauri border since November 26 to press the Centre to accept farmers’ demands, including a legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price for crops.