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2024 Supreme(SC) 73

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
B.R.GAVAI, ARAVIND KUMAR, PRASHANT KUMAR MISHRA, JJ.
In Re:
T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad – Appellant
Versus
Union Of India And Others - Respondents
Writ Petition (Civil) No.202 of 1995
With
Goa Foundation - Appellant
Versus
State Of Goa And Others - Respondents
Civil Appeal No.12234-35 of 2018
Decided on : 24-01-2024

Advocates appeared:
For the Amicus Curiae : Mr. K. Parameshwar, Adv. Mr. M.V. Mukunda, Adv. Ms. Arti Gupta, Adv. Ms. Kanti, Adv. Mr. Chinmay Kalgaonkar, Adv.
For the Petitioner(s): By Courts Motion, AOR Mr. Sanjay Parikh, Sr. Adv. Ms. Srishti Agnihotri, AOR Ms. Sanjana Grace Thomas, Adv. Mr. D P Singh, Adv. Ms. Tara Elizabeth Kurien, Adv. 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
For the Respondent(s): Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G. Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, Adv. Ms. Suhashini Sen, Adv. Mr. S. S. Rebello, Adv. Mr. Shyam Gopal, Adv. Mr. Raghav Sharma, Adv. Mr. Sughosh Subramanyam, Adv. Ms. Ruchi Kohli, Adv. Mr. Raj Kishor Choudhary, AOR Mr. Shakeel Ahmed, Adv. Mr. Amir Kaleem, Adv. Mr. Anupam Bhati, Adv. Mr. Nakul Chaudhary, Adv. Mr. Vikramjeet Singh Ranga, Adv. Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Mr. Kabir Shankar Bose, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Gaichangpou Gangmei, AOR Ms. K. V. Bharathi Upadhyaya, AOR Mr. T. N. Singh, AOR Mr. Punit Dutt Tyagi, AOR Mr. Rathin Das, AOR Mr. Ratan Kumar Choudhuri, AOR Mr. Sudhir Kulshreshtha, AOR Ms. Binu Tamta, AOR Mr. B V Deepak, AOR Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR Mr. Sudhir Kumar Gupta, AOR Mr. A. N. Arora, AOR Mr. Irshad Ahmad, AOR Mr. G. Prakash, AOR Mr. Rauf Rahim, AOR Mrs. Rekha Pandey, AOR Mr. Mohd. Irshad Hanif, AOR Mr. P. V. Yogeswaran, AOR Mr. Jitendra Mohan Sharma, AOR Ms. Malini Poduval, AOR Ms. C. K. Sucharita, AOR Mrs. Anjani Aiyagari, AOR Ms. Hemantika Wahi, AOR Mr. Pradeep Kumar Bakshi, AOR Mr. K. L. Janjani, AOR Mr. Naresh K. Sharma, AOR Ms. A. Sumathi, AOR Mr. Jai Prakash Pandey, AOR Mr. Ajit Pudussery, AOR Ms. Sushma Suri, AOR Mrs. Rani Chhabra, AOR Ms. Divya Roy, AOR Mr. Tarun Johri, AOR Mr. Radha Shyam Jena, AOR Mr. Ram Swarup Sharma, AOR Mrs. Bina Gupta, AOR M/S. Parekh & Co., AOR M/S. K J John And Co, AOR Mr. V. Balachandran, AOR Mr. S. C. Birla, AOR Mr. P. R. Ramasesh, AOR Mr. Shibashish Misra, AOR Mr. Umesh Bhagwat, AOR Mrs. M. Qamaruddin, AOR Mr. H. S. Parihar, AOR Ms. Baby Krishnan, AOR Ms. Bina Madhavan, AOR Mr. K. V. Vijayakumar, AOR Mr. P. N. Gupta, AOR Mr. Sarad Kumar Singhania, AOR Mr. E. C. Agrawala, AOR Mr. Kuldip Singh, AOR Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee, AOR Mr. Ashok Mathur, AOR Mr. Rajat Joseph, AOR Mr. Gopal Prasad, AOR Ms. Jyoti Mendiratta, AOR Mr. S.. Udaya Kumar Sagar, AOR Ms. Madhu Moolchandani, AOR Mr. T. Mahipal, AOR Ms. S. Janani, AOR M/S. Arputham Aruna And Co, AOR Mrs. Nandini Gore, AOR Mr. Raj Kumar Mehta, AOR M/S. M. V. Kini & Associates, AOR Ms. Adviteeya, Adv. Mr. Rakesh K. Sharma, AOR Mr. Tejaswi Kumar Pradhan, AOR Mr. Manoranjan Paikaray, Adv. Mrs. Kanchan Kaur Dhodi, AOR Mr. Surya Kant, AOR Mr. E. C. Vidya Sagar, AOR Mr. Amit Anand Tiwari, AOR Ms. Ruchira Gupta, Adv. Mr. Shishir Deshpande, AOR Ms. Harshita Sharma, Adv. Ms. Swati Jain, Adv. Ms. Pooja Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Tejaswin Suri, Adv. Ms. Pratibha Jain, AOR Mr. Rajeev Singh, AOR Mr. Prashant Kumar, AOR Mr. Dharmendra Kumar Sinha, AOR Mr. P. Parmeswaran, AOR Ms. Sujata Kurdukar, AOR Ms. Sharmila Upadhyay, AOR Mr. Kamal Mohan Gupta, AOR Mr. Sudarsh Menon, AOR Mr. Ramesh Babu M. R., AOR Mr. Vikrant Singh Bais, AOR Mr. Shiva Pujan Singh, AOR Mr. Rajesh Singh, AOR Mrs. B. Sunita Rao, AOR Mr. M. C. Dhingra, AOR Mr. Ejaz Maqbool, AOR Mr. Rajesh, AOR M/S. Corporate Law Group, AOR Mr. Lakshmi Raman Singh, AOR Mr. Himanshu Shekhar, AOR Mrs. Manik Karanjawala, AOR Mr. Bhavanishankar V.gadnis, Adv. Mr. A. Venayagam Balan, AOR Mr. Vishwanath Gadnis, Adv. Mr. Gaurav Pal, Adv. Mr. Rishabh Sahu, Adv. Ms. Hema Sahu, Adv. Mr. Rajendra Sahu, Adv. Mr. C. L. Sahu, AOR Ms. Sumita Hazarika, AOR Ms. Abha R. Sharma, AOR Mr. Abhishek Chaudhary, AOR Mr. S. R. Setia, AOR Ms. Charu Mathur, AOR Mr. Rajiv Mehta, AOR Mr. Martine Desuza, Adv. Mr. Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Akhileshwar Jha, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar Chawla, Adv. Mr. Virendra Mohan, Adv. Ms. Niharika Dwevedi, Adv. Mr.S.A. Sebbi, Adv. Mr. K.M.Johan, Adv. Mr. T. V. George, AOR Mr. Krishnanand Pandeya, AOR Mr. Neeraj Shekhar, AOR Ms. Surabhi Singh, Adv. Ms. Asha Gopalan Nair, AOR Mr. E. M. S. Anam, AOR Mr. M. Yogesh Kanna, AOR Mr. Naveen Kumar, AOR Mr. M. R. Shamshad, AOR Mr. Ajay Marwah, AOR Mr. Vivek Jain, AOR Mr. Pashupathi Nath Razdan, AOR M/S. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas , AOR Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar, AOR Ms. Mayuri Raghuvanshi, AOR Mr. Bharat Bagla, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR Mr. Sourav Singh, Adv. Mr. Aditya Krishna, Adv. Ms. Raavi Sharma, Adv. Mr. Adarsh Dubey, Adv. Mr. Mayank Aggarwal, AOR Ms. Adarsh Nain, AOR Mr. Abhinav Mukerji, AOR Mr. Sanjay Upadhyay, Sr. Adv. Ms. Kali Sanjay Thupdau, Adv. Ms. Mansi Bachani, Adv. Ms. Eisha Krishu, Adv. Mr. Shubham Upadhyay, Adv. Ms. Ruchira Goel, AOR M/S. V. Maheshwari & Co., AOR Mr. Rajeev Singh, AOR Ms. Seita Vaidyalingam, AOR Mr. Kumar Anurag Singh, Adv. Ms. Tulika Mukherjee, Adv. Mr. Anando Mukherjee, AOR Mr. Siddhartha Jha, AOR Ms. Surbhi Mehta, AOR Mr. Rajiv Kumar Choudhry , AOR Nishanth Patil, AOR M/S. Venkat Palwai Law Associates, AOR Mr. Vinod Sharma, AOR Mr. A. Karthik, AOR Mr. Siddharth Sharma, AOR Ms. Vanshaja Shukla, AOR Mr. Chirag M. Shroff, AOR Dr. Joseph Aristotle S., AOR Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, AOR Ms. Devyani Bhatt, Adv. Mr. Krishna Ballabh Thakur, AOR Mr. Avishkar Singhvi, Adv. Mr. Tushar Kumar, Adv. Mr. Hariom Kumar, Adv. Ms. Rashmi Kumari, Adv. Mr. Kamlendra Mishra, AOR Mr. Somesh Chandra Jha, AOR Mr. S. Gowthaman, AOR Mr. Nishit Agrawal, AOR Mr. Romy Chacko, AOR Mr. P. S. Sudheer, AOR Mr. Ramesh Thakur, Adv. Mr. Sunny Choudhary, AOR Mr. Sunil Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Raghvendra Kumar, AOR Mr. Anand Kumar Dubey, Adv. Ms. Harsha Sharma, Adv. Mr. Devvrat Singh, Adv. Dr. Monika Gusain, AOR Mr. P. K. Manohar, AOR Mr. Nishe Rajen Shonker, AOR Ms. Anu K Joy, Adv. Mr. Alim Anvar, Adv. Mr. Abraham Mathew, Adv. Mr. Riddhi Bose, Adv. Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR Ms. Sunieta Ojha, AOR Ms. Anshula Vijay Kumar Grover, AOR Mr. Naveen Kumar, AOR Mr. James P. Thomas, AOR Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, Sr. Adv. Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, AOR Mrs. Kirti Renu Mishra, AOR Mr. Atul Sharma, AOR Mr. Syed Jafar Alam, AOR Mr. B. K. Pal, AOR Ms. Shalini Kaul, AOR Mrs. Niranjana Singh, AOR Mr. Dhaval Mehrotra, AOR Mr. Ravindra Kumar, Sr. Adv. Mr. Binay Kumar Das, AOR Ms. Priyanka Das, Adv. Ms. Neha Das, Adv. Mr. Shivam Saksena, Adv. Mr. Siddhant Juyal, Adv. Mr. Tarun Juyal, Adv. Mr. Shubhranshu Padhi, AOR Mr. Sarvam Ritam Khare, AOR Mr. Gaurav Agrawal, AOR Ms. Shibani Ghosh, AOR Ms. Rashmi Nandakumar, AOR Mrs. Pragya Baghel, AOR Mr. Aravindh S., AOR M/S. D.s.k. Legal, AOR Mr. Mohit Paul, AOR Mr. K.m. Natraj, A.S.G. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR Mrs. Mrinal Elkar Mazumdar, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Verma, Adv. Mr. Neeraj Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Harish Pandey, Adv. Mr. Gopal Balwant Sathe, AOR Ms. Mrinal Gopal Elker, AOR Dr. Manish Singhvi, Sr. Adv. Ms. Shubhangi Agarwal, adv. Mr. Rohan D., Adv. Mr. Apuru S., Adv. Mr. Milind Kumar, AOR Ms. Purnima Krishna, AOR Mr. M.f. Philip, Adv. Mr. Karamveer Singh Yadav, Adv. Mr. T. R. B. Sivakumar, AOR Mr. Kaushik Choudhury, AOR Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR Mr. Manendra Pal Gupta, Adv. Mr. Amrish Kumar, AOR Ms. Astha Sharma, AOR Mr. Srisatya Mohanty, Adv. Ms. Anju Thomas, Adv. Mr. Sanjeev Kaushik, Adv. Ms. Mantika Haryani, Adv. Mr. Shreyas Awasthi, Adv. Mr. Himanshu Chakravarty, Adv. Ms. Ripul Swati Kumari, Adv. Ms. Muskan Surana, Adv. Ms. Anvita Dwivedi, Adv. Ms. Lihzu Shiney Konyak, Adv. Mr. Karan Sharma, AOR Mr. Abhishek Atrey, AOR Dr. Manish Singhvi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sandeep Kumar Jha, AOR Ms. Anzu. K. Varkey, AOR Mr. Ravindra S. Garia, AOR Mr. Abhimanyu Tewari, AOR Ms. Eliza Bar, Adv. Mr. Sudeep Kumar, AOR

IMPORTANT POINT
Private Forests – Criteria – Each State possesses its distinctive geographical features, and as a result, criteria may vary from one State to another.

Headnote:

Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 – Section 2 – National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 – Section 22 – Private Forests – Criteria – Application of criteria cannot be universally standardized across country, as it is contingent upon specific geography and geographical conditions prevalent in each State – Each State possesses its distinctive geographical features, and as a result, criteria may vary from one State to another – Appellant is attempting to take a contrary stand on the issue of criteria for identification of forests, suggesting a change in criteria for identification of deemed forests under private ownership – Appellant cannot be permitted to approbate and reprobate – This Court vide its order dated 12.12.1996 had expressly delegated task of identifying forest areas to Expert Committees to be constituted by State Governments, thereby recognising that there can be no uniform criteria for such identification across the country. (Paras 68 and 69)

Result : Appeals rejected.

JUDGMENT :

Aravind Kumar, J.

1. The present civil appeals arise out of common order dated 30.07.2014 passed by the National Green Tribunal (Western Zone) Bench, Pune1[Hereinafter to be read as “NGT”.] in Application No.14 (THC) of 2013 (WZ) and Application No.16 (THC) of 2013 (WZ) filed by the appellant, whereunder the NGT has disposed of both the applications on the ground that the issue of determination of criteria for the identification of ‘forest’ forms part of the proceedings in TN Godavarman Case2[In Re: TN Godavarman Thirumulpad (Writ Petition No.202 of 1995).] which is presently seized by this Court and hence, granted liberty to the appellant to approach this Court for the remedy. Therefore, the appellant has filed the present civil appeals under Section 22 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010, 3[Hereinafter to be referred as “NGT Act, 2010”.] seeking the modification of such criteria.

2. We have heard the arguments of Mr. Sanjay Parikh, Senior Advocate for the Appellant assisted by Ms. Srishti Agnihotri, Ld. Advocate, Mr. Nalin Kohli, Ld. Advocate for State of Goa assisted by Mr. Sanjay Upadhyay, Ld. Advocate, Ms. Suhashini Sen, Ld. Advocate for Union of India and Mr. Mukul Rohatgi, Ld. Senior Advocate for impleading applicant, perused the case-papers.

FACTUAL MATRIX IN BRIEF

3. The challenge in the present appeals revolves around the criteria issued by the Respondent(s) i.e., the State of Goa and Others for the identification of ‘forests’ in the State, hence, it is important to trace the history of adoption of these criteria which are under challenge before us. Accordingly, in the subsequent paragraphs we have traced the brief history of these criteria.

4. Pursuant to the Judgment of the High Court of Bombay in Shivanand Salgaocar v. Tree Officer & Ors., Writ Petition No.162 of 1987 declaring the application of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 19805[Hereinafter to be read as “FCA 1980”.] to all lands, whether government or privately owned, the Conservator of Forests, State of Goa, in 1991 set out the guidelines for identifying ‘forest’ in private properties. Vide letter dated 04.10.1991 the attention of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) was sought on the said guidelines with a request to issue suitable guidelines to implement the FCA 1980 on the basis of the aforesaid decision of the Bombay High Court. The guidelines were as follows:

“Criteria for application of Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 to private forests.

i) Extent of area: Long term viability of a piece of forest land is an important consideration. Obviously, very small patches of forest cannot be viable in the long run from conservation Point of view. Therefore, a minimum extent of area will have to be determined to which the Forest (Cons.) Act, 1980 would be applicable in private and revenue areas not recorded as 'forest'. I propose that this area should be at least 5 hectares. It is not worthy that the Forest (Cons.) Act, 1980 and guidelines made there under do not prescribe any such minimum area for application of the Act.

ii) Proximity and/or contiguity: The proximity of the private forests concerned to a larger forest area and/or its contiguity with the later area should also be an important aspect to consider while examining such areas.

iii) Composition of crop: It is important to prescribe minimum standards in terms of crop composition in order to distinguish forest species from horticultural species. This is particularly relevant in State like Goa where occurrence of large number of cashew, jackfruit and coconut trees in private areas is a common feature. We may perhaps prescribe that at least 75 of the crop should comprise of forest species.

iv) Crown density: It would not be meaningful to apply the Forest (Cons.) Act, 1980 to degraded and open areas under private ownership. Therefore, a minimum crown density of 40% may be adopted as a stan

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