NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today decided to examine the plea of sugarcane farmers seeking settlement of pending dues running in thousands of crores of rupees due to "unreasonable" delay in payment by sugar mills, triggering farmers' suicide.
"It is a good cause. This can be called a genuine PIL. The type of PIL which we get nowadays are different. When this type of PIL comes, certainly any court has to take note of it. This is a type of case which the court should look into. It is a sincere PIL," a bench comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justices S A Bobde and Amitava Roy observed.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, along with advocate Sridhar Potaraju, submitted that hardship suffered by the cane growers due to non-payment of price by sugar mills during 2012-15, had led many of them to fall into the debt-trap.