Nature Lovers Movement vs State Of Kerala & Ors. País/Territorio India Tipo de la corte Nacional - corte superior Fecha Mar 20, 2009 Fuente UNEP, InforMEA Nombre del tribunal Supreme Court of India Sede de la corte New Delhi Juez Agrawal, B.Singhvi, G.Alam, A. Idioma Inglés Materia Bosques, Recursos minerales, Tierra y suelos Palabra clave Manejo de tierras Tenencia de tierras Medidas de protección forestal Zona protegida Ordenación forestal/conservación de montes Uso social del bosque/bosques comunitarios Servicio forestal/oficiales forestales Propiedad de extranjeros Resumen The questions which arise for determination in this appeal filed against the order of the Full Bench of the Kerala High Court are whether Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 is prospective in operation and whether the Government of Kerala could, without obtaining prior approval of the Central Government grant pattas/lease hold rights to the unauthorised occupants/encroachers of forest land. With a view to make provision for better protection and management of forests in the State, Maharaja of Travancore enacted "The Travancore Forest Regulations of 1068" providing that Diwan of the State could, with the sanction of Maharaja constitute any land at the disposal of Government a reserved forest. Notwithstanding the enactment of afore-mentioned Regulations, parts of reserved forests in the erstwhile State of Travancore were unauthorisedly occupied by landless persons who undertook agricultural operations for their survival. After formation of the new State, the Government took a serious view of the unauthorised occupation/encroachment of forest land and decided that encroachments made after 1.4.1957 will be removed. In order to find out a permanent solution to this perennial problem, the State Government changed to 1.1.1968 the cut off date fixed for regularization of unauthorised occupation/encroachment of forest land. Even this did not deter people from making further encroachment on forest land and use the same for non forest purposes and due to lack, therefore it was decided that all encroachments of forest land made prior to 1.1.1977 will be regularized by framing a policy and those made on or after 1.1.1977 will be removed. However, before that decision could be implemented, the 1980 Act was enacted by Parliament and in view of the non obstante clause contained in Section 2 thereof, the State Government could not pass any order for regularizing unauthorised occupation/encroachments of forest land. The Central Governmenton 31.1.1995 accorded final approval under Section 2 of the 1980 Act for diversion of 28,588.159 hectares forest land for regularization of pre-1.1.1977 unauthorised occupation/encroachments. The appellant challenged this decision filing writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution. It prayed for grant of a declaration that the Government of Kerala is not entitled to dereserve the reserved forest or permit use of forest land for any non-forest purpose without obtaining approval of the Central Government in terms of Section 2(iii) of the 1980 Act. The appellant further prayed that pattayams (title deeds) issued in respect of forest land without obtaining approval of the Central Government should be quashed. By the impugned judgment, the High Court held: the decision of the State Government to grant pattas/lease hold rights to pre-1.1.1977 unauthorised occupants/encroachers of forest land did not involve violation of any constitutional or legal provision, as the 1980 Act is prospective in operation. In the present case it is not in dispute that before the enactment of the 1980 Act, the Government of Kerala had taken a policy decision to regularize the illegal/unauthorised occupation and encroachments of forest land made prior to 1.1.1977 and also to remove all unauthorised occupation/encroachments made on and after 1.1.1977. For implementation of that decision, the State Government approached and succeeded in persuading the Central Government to grant approval for diversion of 28,588.159 hectares of land by way of assignment to the unauthorized occupants/encroachers. The approval granted by the Central Government was in consonance with the guidelines framed by it for regularization of encroachments on forest land. Therefore, the apex opinion is that the policy decision taken by the Government of Kerala to assign 28,588.159 hectares of forest land to unauthorized occupants/ encroachers after seeking approval from the Central Government does not suffer from any legal infirmity and the High Court rightly declined to interfere with the said decision. As and when the State Government decides to assign 10,000 hectares of forest land to unauthorised occupants/encroachers, it shall do so only after obtaining prior approval of the Central Government and the latter shall take appropriate decision keeping in view the object of the 1980 Act and the guidelines framed for regularization of encroachments on forest land. Texto completo COU-156170.pdf Página web www.indiankanoon.org