New Delhi, Sep 16 The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would confine itself to the challenge to the constitutional validity of definition of "forests" under the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act of 2023 and made it clear that disputes related to individual parcels of land will be dealt with by high courts.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana made the remarks while considering a plea of retired forest officer Ashok Sharma, who has challenged the validity of definition of "forests" under the 2023 law on the ground it has a diluting effect on the definition given by the apex court in 1996.
"We are going by the definition of forests given by this court in 1996 in TN Godavarman case. Though Parliament in its domain has power to come with their own definition. We respect that and this is the area in which we will have to look whether there is any contradiction," the bench said.
The petitioners contended that according to the order in the TN Godavarman case, the definition of "forest" has to be understood in the dictionary sense but section 1A of the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980 restricts the definition of forest and exclude the category of forest, as understood in accordance with the dictionary sense, from the ambit of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
They further contended that the Centre, states and Union territories would be using the land, which in fact is a forest but not recorded as forest like the denuded forest or the private forest etc., for compensatory afforestation and as a result there would be loss of forest coverage.
The bench directed the states and Union territories which have not constituted an expert panel to constitute it for preparing a consolidated record of lands, including forest like areas, unclassed and community forest lands.
It said the exercise as required under Rule 16 (1) of the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Rules, 2023 needs to be completed.
It noted that the rule 16 (1) required all the states and Union territories to prepare a consolidated record of such lands, including forest like areas identified by the expert committee, unclassed forest lands and community forest lands to which the provisions of the 2023 forest conservation law would be applicable.
The bench referred a matter involving 59 acres of land in Tamil Nadu, which the petitioners claimed was purchased as agricultural and plantation land but continues to be recorded as private forest under a 1922 notification, to the Madras High Court.
It said similar disputes related to individual parcels of land will be adjudicated by the high courts which will look into the historical use, geographical location and other relevant factors.
The top court also referred to separate pleas by the Maharashtra government for establishing a zoo in Chandrapur to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), where petitioners can raise their objections.
In February, 2024, the top court took note of the submission that the definition of forest under the 2023 amended law on conservation left out nearly 1.99 lakh sq km of forest land from the ambit of "forests" and made it available for other purposes.
It had directed the state governments and union territories to provide the details of forest land within their jurisdiction to the Centre by March 31, 2024.
The top court had said the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change would put all the details on "forest like area, unclassed forest land and community forest land", to be provided by the states and Union territories, on its website by April 15, 2024.
On November 30, 2023, the Centre had told the court that there was no intention to dilute the scope of forest, as defined/held in the judgment of this court in the TN Godavarman case in 1996.
