Back
2021 Supreme(SC) 90
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
S.A. BOBDE, CJI., A.S. BOPANNA, V. RAMASUBRAMANIAN, JJ.
IN RE: T.N. GODAVARMAN THIRUMULPAD – APPELLANT
VERSUS
UNION OF INDIA & ORS. – RESPONDENTS
INTERLOCUTORY APPLICATION NO.191338 OF 2019, INTERLOCUTORY APPLICATION NO.55071, 121109, 130847, 87648 OF 2020 IN Writ Petition (Civil) No.202 OF 1995
Decided on : 15-02-2021
For the parties:Mr. Harish N. Salve, Sr.Adv.(AC) Mr. A.D.N. Rao, Adv. (AC) Mr. Siddhartha Chowdhury,Adv. (AC) Ms. Aparajita Singh,Sr.Adv.(AC) Mr. G.S. Makker,Adv. Mr. Ashok Sharma,Adv. Gen. H.P. Mr. Vikas Mahahajn,AAG, H.P. Mr. Anil Kumar,Adv. Mr. Binod Kumar Singh,Adv. Mr. Vinod Sharma,AOR By Courts Motion, AOR Mr. Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, AOR M/S. PLR Chambers And Co., AOR Mr. Syed Mehdi Imam, AOR Mr. T. Harish Kumar, AOR M/S. Mitter & Mitter Co., AOR M/S. Lawyer S Knit & Co, AOR Mrs. Anil Katiyar, AOR Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Shri. Gaichangpou Gangmei, AOR Mr. Raj Kishor Choudhary, AOR Ms. Asha Gopalan Nair, AOR Mr. Tejaswi Kumar Pradhan, AOR Mr. Rajesh, AOR Mr. E. C. Vidya Sagar, AOR Mr. E. M. S. Anam, AOR Mrs. Bina Gupta, AOR Mr. Gopal Prasad, AOR Mr. P. R. Ramasesh, AOR Mr. Mahfooz A. Nazki, AOR Mr. Polanki Gowtham, Adv. Mr. Shaik Mohamad Haneef, Adv. Mr T. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, Adv Mr. Amitabh Sinha, Adv. Mr. Shrey Sharma, Adv. Mr. Chirag M. Shroff,Adv, Ms. Abhilasha Bharti, Adv. Mr. Sushant Dogra, Adv. Mrs. B. Sunita Rao, AOR Mr. Avijit Bhattacharjee, AOR Ms. A. Sumathi, AOR Mr. Sudhir Kulshreshtha, AOR Mr. Rajeev Singh, AOR Ms. Sumita Hazarika, AOR Ms. Binu Tamta, AOR Mr. Shibashish Misra, AOR M/S. Arputham Aruna And Co, AOR Mr. P. Parmeswaran, AOR Ms. Bina Madhavan, AOR Mrs. Manik Karanjawala, AOR Mr. P. V. Yogeswaran, AOR Mr. Tarun Johri, AOR Mr. G. Prakash, AOR Mr. Kamal Mohan Gupta, AOR Mr. Krishnanand Pandeya, AOR Mr. Rauf Rahim, AOR Mr. K. V. Vijayakumar, AOR Mr. K. J. John, AOR Mr. Vikrant Singh Bais, AOR Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee, AOR Ms. Charu Mathur, AOR Mr. K. L. Janjani, AOR Mr. V. Balachandran, AOR Ms. C. K. Sucharita, AOR Mr. Keshav Mohan, Adv. Mr. R.K Awasthi, Adv. Mr. Prashant Kumar, Adv. Mr. Piyush Vatsa, Adv. Ms. Ritu Arora, Adv. Mr. Santosh Kumar-I, AOR Mr. M. C. Dhingra, AOR Mr. Rathin Das, AOR Mrs. Anjani Aiyagari, AOR Mr. Ashok Mathur, AOR Mrs. Kanchan Kaur Dhodi, AOR M/S. Corporate Law Group, AOR Ms. Madhu Moolchandani, AOR Ms. K. V. Bharathi Upadhyaya, AOR Mrs. Rani Chhabra, AOR Mr. H. S. Parihar, AOR Mr. Jai Prakash Pandey, AOR Mr. A. Venayagam Balan, AOR Mr. A. N. Arora, AOR Mr. Ajit Pudussery, AOR Mr. T. Mahipal, AOR Mr. Prashant Kumar, AOR Ms. Abha R. Sharma, AOR M/S. M. V. Kini & Associates, AOR Mr. B V Deepak, AOR M/S. Parekh & Co., AOR Mr. E. C. Agrawala, AOR Mr. Radha Shyam Jena, AOR Mr. Navin Chawla, AOR Mr. Rajiv Mehta, AOR Mr. Jitendra Mohan Sharma, AOR Mr. Aniruddha P. Mayee, AOR Mr. Rakesh K. Sharma, AOR Mr. Sudarsh Menon, AOR Mr. M. P. Shorawala, AOR Mr. Amit Anand Tiwari, AOR Mrs. Rekha Pandey, AOR Mr. Umesh Bhagwat, AOR Ms. Jyoti Mendiratta, AOR Mr. S. C. Birla, AOR Mr. Naresh K. Sharma, AOR Mr. B. S. Banthia, AOR Ms. Pratibha Jain, AOR Mr. Ejaz Maqbool, AOR Mr. Anoop Kr. Srivastav, AOR Ms. Sujata Kurdukar, AOR Ms. Hemantika Wahi, AOR Mr. P. N. Gupta, AOR Mrs. Nandini Gore, AOR Ms. Baby Krishnan, AOR Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR Ms. Divya Roy, AOR Mr. Ram Swarup Sharma, AOR Ms. Sharmila Upadhyay, AOR Mr. C. L. Sahu, AOR Mr. Neeraj Shekhar, AOR Mr. Shiva Pujan Singh, AOR Mr. Rajat Joseph, AOR Mr. Surya Kant, AOR Mr. Kuldip Singh, AOR Mr. Rajesh Singh, AOR Mr. D. N. Goburdhan, AOR M/S. K J John And Co, AOR Mr. A. T. M. Sampath, AOR Mr. V. G. Pragasam, AOR Mr. T. V. George, AOR Mr. Ratan Kumar Choudhuri, AOR Mr. Lakshmi Raman Singh, AOR Ms. S. Janani, AOR Mr. Dharmendra Kumar Sinha, AOR Mr. S.. Udaya Kumar Sagar, AOR Mr. Himanshu Shekhar, AOR Mr. Mohd. Irshad Hanif, AOR Mrs. M. Qamaruddin, AOR Mr. Ravi Prakash Mehrotra, AOR Mr. Alok Shukla, AOR Mr. Punit Dutt Tyagi, AOR Mr. Irshad Ahmad, AOR Mr. Abhishek Chaudhary, AOR Mr. M. A. Krishna Moorthy, AOR Mr. Ramesh Babu M. R., AOR Mr. Raj Kumar Mehta, AOR Mr. S. R. Setia, AOR Mr. Pradeep Kumar Bakshi, AOR Mr. Sarad Kumar Singhania, AOR Mr. Balraj Dewan, AOR Ms. Rachana Srivastava, AOR Mr. Sudhir Kumar Gupta, AOR Ms. Malini Poduval, AOR Mr. M. Yogesh Kanna, AOR Mrs. Sudha Gupta, AOR Mr. Abhinav Mukerji, AAG/ AOR Ms. Bihu Sharma, Adv. Ms. Pratishtha Vij, Adv. Mrs. Pragya Baghel, AOR Mr. RAJEEV KUMAR DUBEY,ADVOCATE Mr. Manoj K Mishra, Adv. Mr. Ashiwan Mishra, Adv. Mr. Kamlendra Mishra, AOR Mr. Anando Mukherjee, AOR Mr. Gopal Balwant Sathe, AOR Mr. P. S. Sudheer, AOR Mr. P. Venkat Reddy, Adv. Mr. Prashant Kr. Tyagi, Adv. Mr. P. Srinivas Reddy, Adv. For M/s Venkat Palwai Law Associates, AOR Mr. Kaushik Choudhury, AOR Dr. Monika Gusain, AOR Mr. Chirag M. Shroff, AOR Mr. Abhishek Atrey, AOR Mr. Naveen Kumar, AOR Mr. Raghvendra Kumar , Adv. Mr. Anand Kumar Dubey, Adv. Mr. Narendra Kumar, AOR M/S. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Aor, AOR Mr. Somesh Chandra Jha, AOR Ms. Adarsh Nain, AOR Mr. B. K. Pal, AOR Mr. Sunny Choudhary, AOR Ms. Seita Vaidyalingam, AOR Mr. P. K. Manohar, AOR Mr. Nishanth Patil, AOR Mr. James P. Thomas, AOR Mr. Kumar Mihir, AOR Ms. Shalini Kaul, AOR Ms. Vanshaja Shukla, AOR Mr. Arjun Garg, AOR Ms. Shrutika Garg, Adv. Mr. Shubhranshu Padhi, AOR
IMPORTANT POINT
Diversion of forest land for the purpose of carrying out certain public welfare projects is permissible.
Headnote:
Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 – Section 2 – Diversion of forest land – Government of Himachal Pradesh has come up with these applications praying for various reliefs including relief of diversion of small extents of forest land for the purpose of carrying out certain public welfare projects – Some of these projects are already cleared under FCA and FRA, but some are not – Some of reliefs sought by State of Himachal Pradesh can be straight away granted and some other reliefs can be granted subject to certain clearances – First project of Green Corridor National Highway is in two parts, for each of which separate final approval has been granted under Section 2 of Forest Conservation Act, by Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India – One final approval dated 30.09.2020 is for diversion of 28.449 ha of forest land and second final approval of even date is for diversion of 22.419 ha of forest land – Both these final approvals are attached with affidavit filed on 06.02.2021 – Said final approvals are taken on record – So far as Second Project viz. Construction of Two lane NH20A (new NH 503) is concerned, final approval for the same for diversion of 7.0713 ha of forest land has also been granted u/s 2 of Forest Conservation Act by Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India vide letter dated 20.06.2020 – This final approval dated 26.06.2020 is also attached with affidavit filed on 06.02.2021 – Final approvals are taken on record and Government may act accordingly. (Paras 1, 2 and 3)
Result : Applications disposed of with directions.
ORDER :
1. The Government of Himachal Pradesh has come up with these applications praying for various reliefs including the relief of diversion of small extents of forest land for the purpose of carrying out certain public welfare projects. Some of these projects are already cleared under FCA and FRA, but some are not. The application numbers and the reliefs sought are presented in a tabular column for easy reference:
| Interlocutory Application Number | Prayer |
| 191338/2019 (Application for directions) | · Relax the restriction imposed on diversion of forest land under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 vide order dated 11.3.2019 · Relax the restriction imposed on diversion of forest land under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 vide order dated 11.3.2019 · Permit the State Himachal Pradesh, to issue formal orders for diversion of forest land under the Forest Act, 1980 and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 for construction of projects mentioned in para 5 of the application and, to issue formal order also in respect of project mentioned in para 6 of the application after receipt of final approval from Govt. of India under FCA, 1980. |
| 55071/2020 (Application for Directions) |
Relax/remove the restriction imposed on diversion of forest land under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 vide order dated 11.3.2019
Relax/remove the restriction imposed on diversion of forest land under Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 vide order dated 11.3.2019 Permit the State Himachal Pradesh, to issue formal orders for diversion of forest land under the Forest Act, 1980 and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 for construction of projects mentioned in para 8 & 9 of this application and other projects which may be envisaged by the State in future, in accordance with law i.e. strictly in accordance with the provisions of Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. |
| 87648/2020 (Application for directions) |
Allow the State of Himachal Pradesh to carry out silviculture felling of Khair (Acacia catechu) trees in the forests areas of the State in accordance with the approved Working Plans |
| 121109/2020 (Application for directions) |
Allow the State of Himachal Pradesh to issue formal orders for diversion of forest land under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 [FCA] and Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 [FRA] for construction of projects mentioned in paras 12 & 13 of this application and other projects that may be envisaged by the State in future in accordance with law i.e. strictly with the provisions of FCA and FRA. |
| 130847/2020 (Application for directions) |
Allow the State of Himachal Pradesh to issue formal orders for diversion of forest land under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 for construction of projects mentioned in Para 13 and detailed in Annexure A-6 for all other projects that may be envisaged by the State in future, in accordance with law i.e. strictly with the provisions of Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 or the Scheduled Tribes and Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 or other Statutes governing th |
