The Punjab Vidhan Sabha will be holding a special two-day session starting Monday, 19 October, “to bring in a legislation to counter the dangerous anti-farmer Farm Laws of the Central Government.”
Meanwhile, ahead of the session, the Punjab Cabinet on Sunday, 18 October, authorised Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to take any legislative or legal decision he may deem fit to protect the interests of the state's farmers.
Punjab has seen the strongest opposition to the three laws recently passed by Parliament (which received Presidential approval on 24 September). CM Amarinder Singh had previously asserted that his government would fight the new laws, termed by him as “anti-federal”, tooth and nail, including by legal and legislative routes.
The legal route is likely to be a challenge in the Supreme Court under Article 131 of the Constitution, which grants the apex court jurisdiction over Centre-state disputes. Arguments there are expected to focus on whether the Centre had the authority under the constitutional scheme to bring in these laws, or whether their subject area was something the states have a right to legislate on.