Constitutionally Farm Laws on Shaky Ground

Context: Analysing the constitutionality of the farm laws.

Significance of Constitutional Law over the Ordinary Laws:

• In Minerva Mills vs Union of India (1980) and BR Kapur vs State of Tami Nadu (2001): The SC held that - “People of the country, organs of the government, legislature, executive, and the judiciary, are bound by the Constitution, which is the paramount law of the land, and nobody is above or beyond the Constitution”.
• Indian Constitution is Supreme: unlike the British Constitution, which was created by the Parliament, the Indian Constitution was created by ‘We, the People of India’.
  • Constitution provides a mechanism for law creation and not merely an Act which declares what law is to be (SC in Nagaraj vs Union of India, 2006 ).
• Constitution is fundamental and the paramount law of the land: (as per Constitution expert MP Jain) it is under this fundamental law that all laws are made and executed.

Constitutional Limitations over Framing of Farm Laws by Parliament:

• Agriculture is a subject of State List, not the Union List:
  • Reasons:
    • Owing to the country’s vastness and diversity of agricultural produce, soil farming methods, management and ancillary acts connected to it.
    • Owing to it being the traditional pivot, feeding millions of people every day.
  • Exclusion from union list: Several items in union list (Items 82, 86, 87 and 88) exclude agriculture from taxes on income, the capital value of the assets, estate duty.
  • Inclusion in the State List: ‘Agriculture’ as item 14,
    • Item 46: Taxes on agricultural income;
    • Item 47: Duties in respect of succession to agricultural land;
    • Item 48: Estate duty in respect of and
    • Item 30: relief of agricultural indebtedness.
• Under Concurrent List:
  • Item 41: Centre and state are assigned to work on refugees’ agricultural land.
  • Item 6: “Transfer of property other than agricultural land...”

Conclusion: As judged by the Supreme Court in AK Gopalan vs State of Madras (1950), SC must decide whether any of the constitutional limitations has been transgressed or not (Judicial review) in the case of farm laws.