"Anarchists masquerading as protesters:" Patiala based storage company moves Supreme Court against farm law protesters occupying its warehouse

A Patiala based warehousing and storage company has moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to be issued to the Central and Punjab governments to relocate or remove the protesters who have occupied its warehouse at Patiala thereby debarring the petitioner from carrying on its business..The petition by SM Logistics and Warehousing co filed through advocate Siddharth Batra states that protesters, who are agitating against the recently passed farm laws, have "locked his storage facility" causing perishable goods from Adani Wilmar Ltd. and Capital Foods Private Limited stored in the warehouse, to get wasted. ."For the two companies namely Adani and Capital Foods, perishable goods that are worth about rupees 15 Crores are stored in the place of business, for the company namely Technova Raw material worth about rupees 7 Crores for the printing of newspaper is stored which is temperature-controlled and the Petitioner has not been able to access its place of business since 19.02.2021," reads the plea. .The petition which will be heard by a Bench headed by Justice UU Lalit tomorrow. .The plea avers that the "illegal protesters have put their own lock on the gates of the place of the business of the Petitioner and the way for ingress and egress of the place of business have been blocked."The petitioner is suffering a loss of Rs. 1.50 crore per day, the petition adds. "Such an illegality perpetrated in the name of protest against the recently enacted farm laws cannot be continued even for a day and with every passing day, it is not just that the fundamental right guaranteed to the Petitioner is being violated but a huge loss is being caused to the Petitioner," says the plea. .Not only have these protesters failed to conduct their protests in a peaceful and law abiding manner, the acts of protesters have led to vast quantities of perishable essential commodities meant for general public consumption deteriorating in the warehouse premises, the petition further states. .The petition while accepting that right to protest is a fundamental right contends that the such rights should be exercised in harmony and not in opposition to the fundamental rights of other citizens. .While praying for directions to remove, relocate protesters from the site, the petitioner company states that the court may consider setting an "example by directing the Respondents to come down heavily on anarchists masquerading as protesters, while at the same time upholding bonafide citizens’ right to protest in accordance with Constitutional values"..The petitioner has also urged the Court to issue directions to deploy adequate resources outside the site in question in order to ensure free and safe ingress and egress of the products of the three companies and also of the workers/employees and other persons, to and from the said storage facility.