The Supreme Court on Thursday declared as illegal the allotment and subsequent sale of 11.89 hectares of Reserved Forest land located in Kondhwa Budruk, Pune. The land, initially granted to a private family, was later transferred to a housing society, a move the Court found to be in violation of forest conservation laws.
A Supreme Court Bench of Chief Justice B.R. Gavai, Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice K. Vinod Chandran directed all States and Union Territories to reclaim illegally allotted forest lands and return them to the forest department.
“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.” the bench said.
In view of the evident facts, the Court firmly held that the then Revenue Minister of Maharashtra and the Divisional Commissioner of Pune had blatantly breached public trust by enabling the illegal transfer of valuable forest land for the benefit of private individuals.
The Bench held, “we have no hesitation to hold that the allotment of the subject land to the ‘Chavan Family’ was in blatant disregard to the provisions of the law inasmuch as it was violative of Section 2 of the 1980 FC Act as well as the directions issued by this Court from time to time. We also hold that the allotment of the subject land was made, ignoring the communications of the Forest Department which had insisted that the said land could not be allotted inasmuch as, the same was classified as a Forest Land. 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 Supreme Court directed all States and Union Territories to form SITs to probe illegal allotments of reserved forest land, reclaim such land or recover its value for forest development, ensure transfer to Forest Departments within a year, and restrict future use to afforestation only.
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