A Congress MP from Kerala on Monday urged the Supreme Court to quash the Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and related notifications as “unconstitutional, illegal and thereby void”.

T.N. Prathapan, whose petition is expected to be heard this week, said the law had been passed without adequate discussion, and would hurt farmers’ livelihood by leading to their exploitation by big companies.

“This act is violative of Article 14 (equality), 15 (non-discrimination) and 21 (life and liberty) of the Constitution of India and accordingly, liable to be struck down as unconstitutional, illegal and void,” the petition, filed through advocate James P. Thomas, said.

It said the act had put farmers in a position where, if any dispute arose, they would have to run to an already overburdened bureaucracy for a remedy instead of securing a permanent solution in a court of law.

“The present act also fails to establish farmer-centric courts where the farmers can raise their grievances, similar to the ones created under the labour act, consumer act, family courts act, etc. Instead, the act gives the responsibility to sub-divisional magistrate who already has multiple other duties and functions to perform,” the petition said.

“Implementation of the act in its current form will spell disaster for the farming community by opening a parallel market which is unregulated and gives enough room for exploitation of the farmers’ community by concentration of power in the hands of a few corporate/individuals, multinationals and moneylenders thus working against the very object it was seemingly created for.”The new law, passed by voice vote last week, overrides the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act, which restricts farmers to selling their produce at regulated wholesale markets.

While the government claims this will lead farmers to prosperity, protesting farmers are saying it will deprive them of a guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) and lead to their exploitation by big companies.

Prathapan’s petition asserted that without the APMC acting as a protective shield around the farmers, they would fall prey to the greed of multinational companies.

“The APMC deterred the exploitation of the farmers by providing minimum support price which would guarantee that the farmer who comes to the APMC would not leave empty-handed,” the petition said.

It argued that the new law had violated the rights of the 14.5 crore citizens engaged in farming and sought its quashing “before serious financial damage is caused to them and the families of such persons”.

“Unchecked hoarding will give exporters, processors and traders the power to regulate the prices of the produce as and when they need, creating artificial demand thus controlling price in the market at will,” the petition said.