Congress has hailed Supreme Court of India’s interim order asking the states and Union Territories to act as per the definition of “forest” laid down by the top court in a 1996 judgment. Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said that after the “electoral bonds scam”, the Supreme Court has stopped another set of “blatantly illegal and disastrous” Modi government schemes.
“After the electoral bonds scam, the Supreme Court has stopped another set of blatantly illegal and disastrous Modi government schemes.” Jairam wrote on micro-blogging site X.
Jairam Ramesh, who was also the former environment minister, also tagged a media report on the Supreme Court directing that the dictionary meaning of “forest” be applied.
“The Prime Minister wanted to make it easier to hand over India’s forests and pollute the environment, to benefit his corporate crony friends. So first, he changed the rules in 2017 so that projects that had violated their forest clearance could be legalized.” Jairam Ramesh added to his post.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh shared another media report on the amnesty window opened for just six months in March 2017 to clear projects in a novel “violation category” that became routine through a Union Environment Ministry notification in July 2021, and provided ex-post facto approval to over 100 projects till the Supreme Court stayed the notification in January this year.
More than 100 projects of big corporates, including coal mines, factories and cement plants, were allowed to brazenly start work in violation of environmental clearances, Ramesh claimed.
“Next, in 2023, the Modi government brought the Forest Conservation Amendment, which stripped protections from 2 lakh square km of forest. This was in complete violation of a 1996 Supreme Court judgement. This Amendment would have made it easy to divert “deemed forests,” as well as forests in the North East.” Jairam Ramesh said in his X post.
Dealing with a batch of petitions challenging the amendments to the forest conservation law of 2023, a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra on Monday directed the state governments and Union Territories to provide the details of the forest land within their jurisdiction to the Centre by March 31.
“It (Supreme Court) has stayed the illegal permissions given to projects violating their environmental clearance, and has ordered that the dictionary definition of a forest must be followed, as per its 1996 decision. The Congress Party applauds this order, and commits to protecting India’s forests and environment when we form an INDIA government.” Jairam Ramesh said.
In its interim order, the Supreme Court bench asked the states and Union Territories to act as per the definition of “forest” as laid down by the top court in the 1996 judgment in the case of TN Godavarman Thirumulpad vs Union of India.
It noted that the process of identifying land recorded as forests in government records is going on as per the amended law.
The petitioners had alleged that the wide definition of “forest” in the apex court judgment has been narrowed under Section 1A inserted in the amended law. As per the amended law, land has to be either notified as a forest or specifically recorded as a forest in a government record to qualify as a “forest”.
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Published: 20 Feb 2024, 03:32 PM IST