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The Supreme Court on Saturday gave the Punjab government time till December 31 to persuade farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been fasting for over a month, to shift to hospital.
In an unprecedented hearing, a vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and Sudhanshu Dhulia pulled up the Punjab government for allowing the situation to escalate and not complying with its earlier directions to provide medical assistance to Dallewal.
The top court, normally, during winter break does not have vacation benches to conduct urgent hearings on emergent issues and sitting of a bench on Saturday is unusual.
Expressing helplessness, the Punjab government said it is facing huge resistance from protesting farmers who have encircled Dallewal and are preventing him from being taken to hospital.
Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh told the bench that a team of experts visited the protest site and tried to persuade Dallewal to shift to hospital and take medical help.
"He (Dallewal) has refused any kind of medical aid, including (IV) drips, saying that it will undermine the cause of movement," he said.
This infuriated the bench which blamed the Punjab government for not doing enough to contain the situation and said the farmer leaders who are not allowing Dallewal to be taken to the hospital are involved in the criminal offence of abetment to suicide.
The top court allowed the Punjab government to seek any kind of logistics support from the Centre if the situation warrants, and hoped that the state government would comply with its direction of shifting Dallewal to hospital.
The bench said Dallewal is under some kind of "peer pressure" and those farmer leaders who are not allowing him to be shifted to a hospital do not seem to be his well-wishers.
"Are they interested in his life or something else? We don't want to say much and only hope that the Punjab government will comply with our directions," the bench said.
On Friday, the top court expressed concern over the condition of Dallewal and directed the Punjab government to ensure he is given medical assistance.
It had issued a notice to the Punjab government on a contempt petition against its chief secretary and the director general of police (DGP) for non-compliance of an order directing that medical aid be provided to Dallewal.
Dallewal has been on an indefinite fast at the Khanauri border since November 26 to press the Centre to accept farmers' demands, including a legal guarantee of minimum support price for crops.
On December 20, the apex court left it to Punjab government officials and doctors to decide on Dallewal's hospitalisation.
The court said Dallewal, 70, could be moved to the makeshift hospital set up within 700 metres of the protest site at Khanauri border point between Punjab and Haryana.
On December 19, the bench referred to civil rights activist Irom Sharmila continuing her protest for more than a decade under medical supervision and asked the Punjab government to convince Dallewal for an examination.
It had pulled up the state for not running medical tests on Dallewal.
Farmers under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 after their march to Delhi was stopped by the security forces.