Writ petition challenging the lack of individual-level crop insurance in Tamil Nadu. The Court set the writ petition closed, directing the Central Government to look into technical aspects for individual coverage feasibility.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
DATED : 14.12.2015
CORAM
The Hon'ble MR.SANJAY KISHAN KAUL, CHIEF JUSTICE
AND The Hon'ble MRS.JUSTICE PUSHPA SATHYANARAYANA
W.P.No.27082 of 2015
M.Appavu, Ex.M.L.A. ..Petitioner
Vs.
1.The Union of India,
rep. by the Secretary to Government,
Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare,
Krishi Bhavan,
New Delhi-110 001.
2.The Secretary to Government of Tamil Nadu,
Agriculture Department,
Fort St. George,
Chennai-600 009.
3.The Director of Agriculture,
Government of Tamil Nadu
Chepauk, Chennai-600 005.
4.The National Agricultural Insurance Company,
13 th Floor, Amba Deep,
No.14, Kasturiba Gandhi Marg,
New Delhi-110 001. ..Respondents
Writ Petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for issue of Writ of Mandamus directing the 1st and 2nd respondents to pass appropriate orders for extending the crop insurance to all individual farmers in Tamil Nadu, without any crop restriction or topographical restriction, within a reasonable time as may be fixed by this Court.
For Petitioner : Mr.N.Anand Venkatesh
For Respondents : Mr. Su.Srinivasan Asst. Solicitor General for R1 & R4
Mr.P.H.Arvindh Pandian Addl. Advocate General assisted by Mr.STS.Moorthy Government Pleader for R2 and R3
ORDER
(Order of the Court was made by The Hon'ble Chief Justice)
The petitioner seeks to raise the issue of extending the crop insurance to all individual farmers in Tamil Nadu, without any crop restriction or topographical restriction.
“11. It is respectfully submitted that the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare is aware of the situation and has discussed the matter of individual coverage under the scheme at various for a and meetings with stakeholders including State Governments. Though
most of the stakeholders supported the idea for implementation of schemes at individual level but they have raised the issue of difficulties at implementation level. The major difficulty is to know the yield of each and every field to assess the losses. Crops in the field are not similar to other properties like car, house etc. where loss can be assessed on the basis of cost of the vehicle, household etc. To know the yield of individual field, past yield data based on the scientific method of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) is required. For which CCEs are required to be conducted on each and every field for assessment of losses, which is a huge task keeping in the view of present level of about 15 lakh CCEs being conducted at block level under General Crop Estimation Survey. 50 lakh more CCEs are required if the scheme would be implemented on village/village panchayat level for all crops. The magnitude of CCEs would increase to crores, if each field is selected for insurance even at the present level of penetration of 21%. Moreover, the total farm holdings in the country are more than 12 crores. Further, it is also stated that no technology/methodology/breakthrough is available, at present, to calculate the yield of each and every field. The experiments to know the yield of each field through improved technologies like Remote Sensing Technology and use of satellites etc., are being conducted by various agencies/departments but are still in a nascent stage and will take some time before they are perfected.”
“12. It is respectfully submitted that however, Government has taken various steps like reimbursement of 50% of additional expenses of States on increase in CCEs due to reduction of unit area to village/village Panchayat level by Central Government, provision of calculation and settlement of claims on the basis of individual field/farm for the crop losses due to localized
calamities like hailstorm and landslide under MNAIS component of NCIP and add on/Index cover under WBCIS component of NCIP. It is submitted that keeping in view the large number of fragmented holdings and lack of yield data/weather data of individual farms and the lack of infrastructure and preparedness at State level, it may not be administratively possible at present, to implement crop insurance scheme at individual level on cost effective basis.”
W.P.No.27082 of 2015 CO-SKV
JD 30/12/2015
3 issues framed by the court
Whether crop insurance can be extended to all individual farmers in Tamil Nadu without crop or topographical restrictions.
Whether it is administratively feasible to implement individual-level crop insurance given infrastructure limitations.
Whether the petitioner should be directed to provide suggestions for technical improvements in crop insurance.
M.Appavu, Ex.M.L.A.
The Union of India
The Secretary to Government of Tamil Nadu
The Director of Agriculture
The National Agricultural Insurance Company
Sanjay Kishan Kaul
Pushpa Sathyanaarayana
As recorded by the court registry
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