The apex court granted three weeks’ time to farmer unions, leading the nearly year-long agitation along the borders of Delhi and elsewhere against the three central farm laws, to file their response on a petition seeking removal of the protesters from the roads. The court posted the matter for further hearing on December 7.

The court was hearing a petition filed by a resident of Noida urging that the protesters be removed from the roads around the national capital region.

“Ultimately some solution has to be found. We are not averse to their right to protest even when a legal challenge is pending, but roads cannot be blocked,” the court stated.

Earlier as well, taking grim view of the continuing blockade of highways connecting the national capital to the neighbouring states by farmers protesting against the farm laws, the apex court had said that the roads cannot be blocked perpetually.

“Redressal can be through judicial form, agitation, or parliamentary debates. But how can highways be blocked and this happen perpetually? Where does it end?”, Justices S K Kaul, who was heading a two-judge bench, remarked while hearing a plea by a Noida resident alleging hardships to commuters due to the ongoing protests.