HC allows Karnal farmer to bring produce from UP, but not sell it in APMC mandis

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday allowed a Karnal farmer to bring farm produce from Uttar Pradesh to Haryana or Punjab but stipulated that it could not be sold in Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis.

The order was passed by a high court bench of justice Amol Rattan Singh during resumed hearing of the case, which was brought to the high court last week.

“The petitioner may bring his produce within the territory of Haryana or Punjab, however, he shall not be entitled to sell his produce at any designated grain market, market yard, market place or any other area notified as principal market or sub-market yard of the market, special market or any other place meant and notified for the sale or purchase of the agricultural produce; under the Haryana Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1961 and the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1961,” the bench said. The matter has been adjourned till December 9 and a response has been sought from the Centre, Punjab and Haryana.

The farmer, Virender Kumar, had approached the high court on November 4, stating that though the Centre’s new agriculture law permits sale of crops in any part of the country, he was not being allowed to bring produce from Uttar Pradesh into Haryana. He had told court that Section 3 of the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, provides absolute freedom to farmers to sell produce anywhere in the country. But he was not being allowed to sell his produce in Haryana.

The farmer belongs to Karnal and he had sown paddy on around 75-acre land owned by his family in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. He had harvested about 1,650 quintals of paddy from his fields and intended to sell it in Haryana, where the Food Corporation of India and other agencies are purchasing it at a minimum support price of ₹1, 888 per quintal. He could not register himself on the Haryana government’s portal, ‘Meri fasal, mera byora’. When he was bringing around 650 quintals of paddy in four trolleys to sell in Karnal, he was stopped on October 24, stating that produce from UP cannot be sold in the state, he had told the court.

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