On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld an order of the Tamil Nadu government that waived loans of small and marginal farmers.
In May 2016, the Tamil Nadu government had granted loan waivers to farmers with landholdings less than five acres.
A year later, the decision was challenged before the Madras High Court by a farmers’ body, National South Indian River Interlinking Agriculturist Association. The High Court had set aside the government’s decision and asked it to waive all farmers’ loans since the state was affected by drought at that time.
On Tuesday, a bench comprising of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice AS Bopanna was hearing the Tamil Nadu government’s appeal against the High Court order.
“The scheme propounded by the state of Tamil Nadu passes muster against the constitutional challenge,” the Supreme Court said.“The High Court has erred in holding otherwise.”
It had also said that the Tamil Nadu government had been unable to prove that the small and marginal farmers constituted a class that was affected more than the big farmers by the drought.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that Article 14 forbids class legislation and allows reasonable classification.
“It is now a settled position that classification per se is not discriminatory and violative of Article 14,” the court said.
An affidavit by the state government, accessed by the Hindustan Times, claims that 16,94,145 small and marginal farmers will be benefited when loans worth Rs 5,780 crore are waived.
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