The Supreme Court on Friday said that the Punjab government must take all measures to ensure that farm leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal – who is on an indefinite hunger strike – receives immediate and adequate medical care, Live Law reported.

The Court also directed the state government to file a compliance report in the matter by 11 am on Saturday, when it is scheduled to hear the case again.

Dallewal, chief of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political), has been on an indefinite hunger strike at Khanauri, located on the Punjab-Haryana border, since November 26.

The 70-year-old cancer patient, who has held hunger strikes in the past, had announced his protest on the fourth anniversary of the farmers’ movement against the now-scrapped farm laws.

Dallewal’s hunger strike is part of a wider campaign by Punjab’s farm groups to press the Union government to accept their demand for legally guaranteed minimum support prices. The minimum support price is the cost at which the government procures crops from farmers.

“…Perhaps you are not [taking this seriously], otherwise you would have given medical aid by now,” Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia remarked on Friday, pointing out that “somebody’s life is at stake”.

The vacation bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Dhulia issued notice to the Punjab government on a contempt petition filed against the state’s chief secretary alleging non-compliance with a previous court order mandating medical aid to Dallewal.

On December 20, the court said that the responsibility of ensuring Dallewal’s stable health was the Punjab government’s. It directed the state authorities to decide if Dallewal needed to be shifted to a make-shift hospital for better care.

On Friday, the counsel for the state of Punjab said they were unable to shift Dallewal as his colleagues had resisted the move.

This prompted the court to say: “If some people are creating law and order problems, it is your affair. You must deal with it with an iron hand.”

The court also expressed concern about “farmers who are creating obstacles to provide him [Dallewal] aid”. It reiterated that the state should take all measures to ensure medical aid to the protesting farm leader.