SC Issues Notice On Petition Challenging Diversion Of Forest Land To DRDO [Read Petition]

The Supreme Court bench of the Chief Justice Dipak Misra, and Justices A.M.Khanwilkar and D.Y.Chandrachud, on October 3, issued notice on a petition challenging the diversion of forest land between Khoa and Jajor in Alwar district, Rajasthan,  in favour of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).  The DRDO sought the land for a strategic project.

The SLP has been filed against the dismissal of the writ petition with the same prayer, by the Jaipur bench of the Rajasthan High  Court on April 24.   The High Court dismissed it without going into the merits, on the ground that the DRDO project is one of “national importance”.   The High Court further held that if at all the grievance raised in the petition needs redressal, the concerned Gram  Panchayat must approach the Court.   The Jaipur Bench which dismissed the petition was comprised of the Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma.

The petition, filed by one Virendra Mathur, on behalf of the villagers of Kithur, Rajasthan, alleges that 850 hectares of forest land has been diverted by the State of Rajasthan and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in favour of DRDO, for non-forest purposes in violation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, and the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

The petition alleges that the diversion does not have any environment clearance as per the Aravalli notification requirement of 1992 that requires the Environment Impact Assessment and Environmental Management Plan.  The petition claims that the land in question as per revenue records is a forest land and a ‘gair mumkin pahad’ which cannot be diverted for non-forest purposes.

The petition further claims that the villagers of the adjoining areas have community rights over the forest land, which they use for grazing their cattle, for burying their dead and for various other religious and social purposes.   It allges that the land has been diverted on the basis of fraudulent and baseless No-Objection Certificates from the gram panchayat.

Section 3(2) of the Forest Rights Act makes it mandatory that NOCs be obtained from the Gram Sabha of affected villages.  The decisionof Gram Sabha is valid only when taken in presence of 50 per cent of members present and voting.  However, the petition alleges that fake NOCs were issued in the name of Kithur Panchayat.  The DRDO neither submitted Environment Impact Statement, nor Environment Management Plan, as per the Aravali Range Notification dated 29.11.1999.

The SLP contends that the High Court disposed of the mater without appreciating the illegal, arbitrary manner in which forest land has been diverted to DRDO without following any procedure.  “There is no exception in law which allows for forest land to be diverted for non-forest purposes of “national importance”, the petition argues.

The petitioners before the Supreme Court have described themselves as the residents of villages directly affected by the diversion of the 2000 acres of forest land.  The Sarpanch of Kithur village, the petition claims, had first raised the objections of fake and fraudulent NOCs and sought an enquiry.