Judgment of the Supreme Court regarding forest land allotted illegally to private entities, 15/05/2025
Judgment of the Supreme Court in the matter of In Re: T N Godavarman Thirumalpad Vs Union of India & Others.
The Supreme Court said that that the allotment of 11.89 hectare of reserve forest land in Survey No.21 Kondhwa Budruk in district Pune for agriculture purposes on August 28, 1998 and subsequent permission given for its sale in favour of Richie Rich Cooperative Housing Society (RRCHS) on October 30, 1999 was totally illegal.
The SC held that Environmental Clearance granted by the MoEF on July 3, 2007 to RRCHS is illegal and is accordingly quashed and set aside. The court directed that the possession of the forest land, which is reserved as a forest land, but is in possession of the Revenue Department, should be handed over to the forest department within a period of three months.
The SC further directed the Chief Secretaries of all the States and the Administrators of all the Union Territories to constitute Special Investigation Teams for the purpose of examining as to whether any of the reserved Forest Land in the possession of the Revenue Department has been allotted to any private individuals/institutions for any purpose other than the forestry purpose.
The State Governments and the Union Territories are also directed to take steps to take back the possession of the land from the persons/institutions in possession of such lands and handover the same to the Forest Department. In case, it is found that taking back the possession of the land would not be in the larger public interest, the State Governments/Union Territories should recover the cost of the said land from the persons/institutions to whom they were allotted and use the said amount for the purpose of development of forests.
Direction was also given to Chief Secretaries of all the States and the Administrators of all the Union Territories to constitute Special Teams to ensure that all such transfers take place within a period of one year from today. Needless to state that hereinafter such land should be used only for the purpose of afforestation.