Duty-free yellow peas
SC notice to govt on PIL to scrap extension of duty-free yellow peas imports
This story was originally published at 15:38 IST on 25 September 2025
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NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Thursday issued a notice to the Centre on a public interest litigation seeking quashing of the government's notification to extend duty-free import of yellow peas until Mar. 31, 2026. "We will issue a notice. But we have to see that the net end result should not be suffering for the end consumer also. You don't allow imports and then there is a shortage. We have to avoid that," said a bench of Justice Surya Kant, Justice Ujjay Bhuyan, and Justice N. Kotiswar Singh.
The petitioner Kisan Mahapanchayat, a farmers' organisation, has sought a direction to the government to impose such restrictions on the import of yellow peas so as to ensure that the price at which these were sold in India were at or above the minimum support price of domestically grown pulses. Further, the petitioner sought prohibition of import of yellow peas, as had been recommended by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices in order to protect Indian farmers and boost domestic production.
India introduced a duty-free import policy for yellow peas in December 2023 to combat high pulses inflation and, since then it has undergone several extensions. The policy was initially set to expire in March 2024, but has been extended multiple times, with the latest extension valid until Mar. 31, 2026. India has reportedly imported an unprecedented 6.7 million tonnes of pulses in 2024, of which yellow peas alone comprised around 2.9 million tonnes, said the petitioner.
According to the petitioner, the successive extensions of duty-free yellow pea imports have caused severe loss and damage to Indian farmers by undermining their livelihoods. Following the removal of all import restrictions, the surge in yellow pea imports has driven domestic pulse prices well below the minimum support price, disincentivising Indian farmers from production of these pulses, the petitioner said. The extension to duty-free import of yellow peas was in blatant violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India for being arbitrary and irrational, as the repeated successive extensions of "free" import of yellow peas was completely devoid of any application of mind, not backed by any cogent material, and has caused huge loss to Indian farmers, said the petitioner.
The petition stated that yellow peas, which belong to the legume family (pulses), are not traditionally grown in India and are instead an imported variety used as a substitute for tur/arhar and chana. In countries such as Canada, the US, and Australia, yellow peas are primarily used as cattle feed.
The consistent duty-free imports of yellow peas have caused its selling price to fall far below the minimum support price which was guaranteed for the Indian grown pulses such as tur/arhar and chana. Reportedly, the cost price of imported yellow peas in India was approximately INR 3,500 per quintal which was significantly lower than the minimum support price fixed by the government for Indian pulses such as chana, arhar, and moong, said the petitioner.
In August and September, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had sent a representation to the Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs, raising concern over the duty-free import of yellow peas. He argued that continued imports had brought down domestic prices of pulses, discouraging farmers to undertake area expansion of pulses. Earlier this month, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution wrote to the Ministry of Commerce advising it to restrict the duty-free imports of yellow peas. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Subhojit Sarkar
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