The Supreme Court suspended the implementation of three contentious farm laws till further notice on Tuesday and formed a committee of experts to facilitate talks between the Centre and the protesting farmers and resolve the impasse.

Before pronouncing the order, the bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde commenced the hearing and urged the farmers' unions to cooperate and go before the committee to be appointed by it to resolve the dispute.

"We are concerned about protecting the lives and property of citizens of India and we want to solve the problem," said the bench which also comprised Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.

The apex court stayed the implementation of the three laws -- the Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act -- against which several petitions have been filed challenging their constitutional validity.

The bench, which read out names of four members of the committee, said it would look into the farmers' grievances. The four are: Bhupinder Singh Mann, President of Bhartiya Kisan Union; Anil Ghanwat, President of Shetkeri Sangthana, Maharashtra; Pramod Kumar Joshi, director for South Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute; and agriculture economist Ashok Gulati.

In the proceedings conducted through video conferencing, it said no power can prevent us from making committee to resolve the impasse on new farm laws. It reiterated the apex court has powers to suspend the legislation in order to solve the problem.

The bench said those who "genuinely want resolution, will go to the committee" on farm laws.

It highlighted the difference between judiciary and the politics and asked the farmers to cooperate with it. "This is not politics. There is a difference between politics and judiciary and you will have to cooperate", it said to farmer unions.

The SC also sought response from the Centre on whether a banned organisation had infiltrated the farmers’ protests. The direction came after P S Narasimha, who represented a petitioner supporting the farm laws, claimed members of “Sikhs for Justice” were helping the protests, reported The Indian Express.

The bench said it deems fit to pass the interim order with the hope and expectation that both parties will take this in the right spirit and attempt to arrive at a fair, equitable and just solution to the problems .

The bench also lauded the farmers for carrying out agitation against the farm laws peacefully and without any untoward incident.

While we may not stifle a peaceful protest, we think that this extraordinary order of stay of implementation of the farm laws will be perceived as an achievement of the purpose of such protest at least for the present and will encourage the farmers bodies to convince their members to get back to their livelihood, both in order to protect their own lives and health and in order to protect the lives and properties of others, the bench said and posted the matter for further hearing after eight weeks.

Saying Khalistanis were part of the protests, the Attorney General said he would file an affidavit with Intelligence Bureau records by Wednesday.

The apex court also issued notices on Delhi Police petition seeking to stop the tractor rally planned by farmers on Republic Day.

The Centre and farmer unions have engaged in eight rounds of talks so far, but failed to break the impasse. Their next meeting is scheduled on January 15.

On Monday, the apex court had pulled up the Centre for its handling of the farmers protest against the new farm laws saying it is extremely disappointed with the way negotiations between them were going.

It also spoke of constituting a committee headed by a former Chief Justice of India to resolve the impasse.

The protesting farmers on Monday night thanked the Supreme Court but politely declined to join the proceedings of the committee citing the “stubborn attitude of the government”.

Later in the day on Monday, the Centre filed a 45-page affidavit in the court to claim that only a “limited number of farmers” and “others” were opposing the laws and that “farmers of the nation are happy”, PTI reported. The affidavit described the demand for repeal of the laws as “neither justifiable nor acceptable”. It also denied that the laws were “passed hurriedly” without consultation.

At night, the Morcha issued a statement in which it expressed great respect for the apex court and for its “understanding of the problem and comforting words expressed during the hearing”.

It said they have decided not to participate in the committee’s proceedings either individually or collectively because the “attitude and approach’’ of the government in court had made it clear they will not agree to any discussion on repeal of the laws that the farmers’ believe will be their “death warrant”.