Petitioners say the Singhu border has had blockades since February and leaves people stuck in traffic jams for hours while travelling a distance coverable in minutes. The Delhi High Court, on Monday disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition seeking removal of blockades at NH-44 along the Singhu border, the gateway to Punjab and Haryana. The court suggested that the police action might be based on some intelligence input. A bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, however, permitted the petitioners to approach Delhi’s commissioner of police within a week with a representation to remove the blockades.

The petition, moved by Shankar Mor and two others, stated that the border had had blockades since February 2024 over farmers’ ongoing protest and left people stuck in traffic jams for hours while travelling a distance coverable in minutes. “(There’s) not a single farmer at the border since Feb 2024. Filed a petition in April, after which they partially opened (the border). Till date it has not been removed fully, and the public is suffering,” the petitioners’ counsel submitted before the bench. The petitioners admitted they had moved the high court without making any representation to the police. Chief Justice Manmohan remarked, “Why did you not make a representation? There may be some intelligence input (with the police authorities), some actionable intelligence…we don’t know, we can’t decide…we don’t know what their (police) stance is.”