The perfect court docket on thursday directed all of the states and union territories to constitute special research groups (SITs) to restore woodland lands that have been illegally allocated to personal entities and get better fees in cases in which taking back possession turned into not being in the larger public interest.
The course came in a judgment delivered in a case associated with the "unlawful" allotment of 11.89 hectares of reserved forest land in pune, maharashtra, to a housing society—Richie Rich Cooperative Housing Society Confined (RRCHS)—in october 1999. The court docket in its order referred to the function of the then maharashtra sales minister, after which the divisional commissioner, who ensured the allotment of land to the housing society through bypassing the Forest Conservation Act, raised objections by bureaucrats at the land intended for agricultural reasons and a 1996 top court verdict inside the landmark TN Godavarman case that gave an expansive meaning to the definition of forests under the FC Act.
A bench headed by the Chief Justice of india (CJI), BR Gavai, said, "We direct chief secretaries of all of the states and administrators of all of the union territories to constitute special research groups (sit down) for the cause of examining as to whether any of the reserved forest land within the possession of the sales department has been allotted to any non-public people/establishments for any motive other than the forestry purpose."
The bench, additionally comprising justices AG Masih and OK Vinod Chandran, similarly directed states and USAT to "take steps to take back the ownership of the land from the individuals or establishments in possession of such lands and hand over the same to the wooded area branch."
"In case it is determined that taking back the ownership of the land would no longer be in the large public interest, the kingdom governments/United States have to get the fee for the stated land from the people/establishments to whom they had been allotted and use the said amount for the reason of improvement of forests," the decision, authored by the CJI, added.
Such a switch of land must be completed within a length of 365 days, the bench ordered.
Inside the pune case, the bench held that the allotment of 11.89 hectares of the reserved forest land in Kondhwa Budruk village for agricultural purposes on august 28, 1998, and the next permission given for its sale in favor of RRCHS on october 30, 1999, changed into "definitely unlawful."
"We additionally don't have any hesitation to keep that the then minister for sales and the then divisional commissioner, pune, have given a complete pass-by to the doctrine of public belief inasmuch as treasured forest land turned into allotted land to the 'Chavan family' de hors the provisions of the law," it said, noting the land changed into allocated land in favor of 1 "Chavan family" in 1998.
"The present count is a classic instance as to how the nexus between the politicians, bureaucrats, and the builders can result in the conversion of valuable forest land for industrial functions underneath the garb of resettlement of humans belonging to the backward class from whose ancestors agricultural land was acquired for public purpose," it brought.
The court docket quashed the environmental clearance granted with the aid of the Union environment ministry on July 3, 2007, to RRCHS. It directed that ownership of the situation land, which is reserved as woodland but is in possession of the revenue department, needs to be handed over to the forest department within three months.
click and follow Indiaherald WhatsApp channel