'Will Hold Chief Secretaries Personally Liable' : Supreme Court Warns States/UTs Which Haven't Formed Expert Committees To Identify Forest Areas

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (March 4) came down heavily on States/Union Territories for not complying with its earlier directions to constitute expert committees for the identification of forest areas.If the non-compliant States fail to constitute the Expert Committees within one month and carry out the exercise in terms of Rule 16(1) of Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Rules, 2023 within six months, the Chief Secretaries and Administrators of the States/UTs shall be held personally accountable, the Court said.A bench of Justices BR Gavai and AG Masih passed the order, directing time-bound compliance, in the following terms,"It is the contention of petitioners that Union/States would be using the land which infact is forest, but not recorded as forest, for compensatory afforestation...It is submitted that this would reduce forest coverage...On 3 February, an apprehension was expressed that states/Union would use forest lands for linear projects etc. without doing compensatory afforestation, thereby leading to reduction of forest areas...It is necessary that all state governments make efforts to complete the exercise within stipulated period. While doing so, the state governments and UTs would also be bound to follow guidelines of this court contained in order dt...we therefore direct all states/UTs in which expert committees have not been constituted, to constitute such committees within 1 month from today. The said committees shall complete the required exercise alongwith directions of this court within 6 months and submit a report to Union. Union shall consolidate the position and place it before this Court. The Registrar (Judicial) shall communicate this order to Chief Secretaries of all states in country and administrators of all UTs.We clarify that if the directions are not complied in letter and spirit, we will personally hold Chief Secretaries/Administrators responsible for the lapse and consider taking appropriate steps."The order was passed after the Court noted that several states/UTs had not appointed Expert Committees, and that most had not completed the work required to be undertaken in terms of Rule 16(1), in terms of the Court's earlier directions.For context, the said provision requires all states/UTs to prepare a consolidated record of lands including forest-like areas identified by expert committees. The Court was of the view that once the exercise, as required under Rule 16(1), is completed, it would lead to resolution of many issues.Briefly put, the Court was dealing with a batch of writ petitions challenging the 2023 amendments to the Forest Conservation Act (FCA). In February, 2024, an interim order was passed in the matter directing that States/UTs must act as per the definition of "forest" laid down in the 1996 judgment in TN Godavarman Thirumalpad v. Union of India while the process of identifying land recorded as forests in Government records is going on as per the 2023 amendment to FCA.As per the order passed in February last year, the Court further directed that the Union of India shall, within a period of 2 weeks, require all States/UTs to provide it a comprehensive record of land identified as "forests" by the expert committees constituted by the States/UTs as per the TN Godavarman judgment. All states and UTs were to comply with the directions by forwarding the reports of the expert committees by March 31, 2024. It was further directed that the records shall be maintained by MoEF, digitized and made available on the official website by April 15, 2024.In February this year, the Court restrained the Union and the States from taking any steps that would lead to reduction in "forest land" across the country, unless provision is made by them for compensatory land. At the time, Justice Gavai orally told Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, "You will not permit anything which leads to reduction of forest area. And if you are using any forest area for some linear project, then you have to provide that much of land for compensatory afforestation."Today, Senior Advocate Prashanto Chandra Sen, for the petitioners (including retired IFS officials), urged that while the matter remains pending, forest land is being used by authorities for compensatory afforestation, which in turn is decreasing forest land area. He further highlighted a need for proper evaluation of the total forest area in the country as per the directions in the 1996 TN Godavarman judgment and the guidelines in Lafarge (2011) judgment (regarding compliance with the exercise directed to be carried out by States/UTs, MoEFCC and State Expert Committees in the 1996 TN Godavarman judgment).Sen also argued that it is crucial to identify 'unclassed forests' (which are forests other than those notified as forests under the Indian Forest Act). "Once these unclassed forests are identified, there would be complete clarity of the total forest area and thereafter, decisions for diversion of non-forest land can be taken...

'Will Hold Chief Secretaries Personally Liable' : Supreme Court Warns States/UTs Which Haven't Formed Expert Committees To Identify Forest Areas

Debby Jain

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