NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has directed states and union territories to hand over the possession of lands, which are recorded as “forest land” and which are in possession of the revenue department, to the forest department.
A bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justices Augustine George Masih and K Vinod Chandran rued the nexus between the politicians, bureaucrats and the builders, involved in converting the precious forest land for commercial purposes.
The court underscored that the executive acting under the doctrine of public trust cannot abdicate the natural resources and convert them into private ownership, or for commercial use.
The bench also directed the chief secretaries to constitute special teams to ensure that all such transfers take place within a period of one year.
The court ordered 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 or institutions for any purpose other than the forestry.
It the directions in its 88-page judgment in a matter related to reserved forest land in Pune.
The court held as totally illegal the allotment of 11.89 ha of reserve forest land at Kondhwa Budruk in District Pune for agriculture purposes on August 28, 1998 and subsequent permission given for its sale in favour of RRCHS on October 30, 1999.
The bench also quashed and set aside the environmental clearance granted by the MoEF on July 3, 2007 to RRCHS as illegal.
The CJI, who authored the judgment for the bench, at the outset said the present matter is a classic example as to how the nexus between the politicians, bureaucrats and the builders can result in the conversion of precious forest land for commercial purposes under the garb of resettlement of people belonging to the backward class from whose ancestors, agricultural land was acquired for public purpose.
“It appears that the then Minister for Revenue and the then Divisional Commissioner had totally given a go-bye to the doctrine of public trust. The facts appearing on the record are glaring,” the bench said.
In the case, the court directed that the possession of the subject land, which is reserved as forest land, but is in possession of the revenue department, should be handed over to the forest department within a period of three months. It upheld the Maharashtra government's decision to recall the communication of August 4, 1998 approving the allotment of the subject land to the ‘Chavan Family’.
