Today, On 16th May, Calling it a “glaring issue,” the Supreme Court ordered all states and UTs to transfer notified forest land, still held by revenue departments, back to forest departments within one year to protect forest rights.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has instructed all states and union territories to form special investigation teams to investigate whether any reserved forest land under the revenue department has been allocated to private entities for purposes other than forestry.
Highlighting a “glaring issue,” the court noted that a significant amount of designated forest land remains under the control of the revenue department. It ordered all states and UTs to transfer such lands to the forest department.
A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices Augustine George Masih and K Vinod Chandran referenced a report from the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), which indicated that numerous forest lands have been assigned to private individuals or organizations for non-forestry uses.
The bench stated,
“We further direct the chief secretaries of all the states and the administrators of all the Union Territories to constitute special investigation teams for the purpose of examining as to whether any of the reserved forest land in the possession of the revenue department has been allotted to any private individuals/institutions for any purpose other than the forestry purpose,”
The states and UTs were also instructed to take measures to reclaim these lands and return them to the forest department.
The bench added,
“In case, it is found that taking back the possession of the land would not be in the larger public interest, the state governments/Union Territories should recover the cost of the said land from the persons/institutions to whom they were allotted and use the said amount for the purpose of development of forests,”
Additionally, the court mandated that special teams be established to ensure all transfers are completed within a year.
The bench remarked,
“Needless to state that hereinafter such land should be used only for the purpose of afforestation,”
The ruling pertains to a case involving reserved forest land in Pune.
The bench declared that the allocation of 11.89 hectares of reserved forest land in Kondhwa Budruk for agricultural use on August 28, 1998, and the subsequent approval for its sale to Richie Rich Cooperative Housing Society Limited (RRCHS) on October 30, 1999, was “totally illegal.”
The bench stated,
“We also have no hesitation to hold that the then minister for revenue and the then divisional commissioner, Pune, have given a total go-bye to the doctrine of public trust inasmuch as, valuable forest land was allotted to the ‘Chavan family’ de hors the provisions of the law.”
The court highlighted that this land was allocated to a “Chavan family” in 1998. It described the situation as a clear example of how collusion between politicians, bureaucrats, and developers can lead to the conversion of valuable forest land for commercial purposes under the pretext of resettling backward class individuals whose ancestors had their agricultural land taken for public use.
As a result, the Supreme Court annulled the environmental clearance granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) on July 3, 2007, to RRCHS, which had approved the construction of a residential, shopping, and IT complex.
The bench emphasized that the state had rescinded the August 4, 1998, communication approving the land’s allocation to the “Chavan family,” and it upheld this decision. It ordered the transfer of the subject land, designated as forest land but currently under the revenue department’s control, to the forest department within three months.
The bench underscored that any non-forest activities within the area of any “forest” require prior approval from the Central government. It noted that RRCHS, fully aware that the land was forest land, engaged in transactions with the “Chavan family” even before the land was officially allotted to them.
The bench stated,
“The transactions between the RRCHS and the members of the ‘Chavan family’ were totally illegal and contrary to the conditions on which the land was allotted to the ‘Chavan family’,”
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The court criticized the “alarming speed” of events between July and August 1998, indicating a concerning pattern.
The bench concluded,
“We have no hesitation in holding that the then minister for revenue, government of Maharashtra and the then divisional commissioner, Pune, have acted totally in breach of public trust to illegally cause gain to private individuals at the cost of sacrificing precious forest land,”
It asserted that the allotment of the land to the “Chavan family” blatantly violated the provisions of the law, specifically Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, which prohibits the de-reservation or use of forest land for non-forest purposes without Central government approval.