New Delhi:
The environment “should take precedence” over other rights and forests must be preserved, the Supreme Court said Tuesday while hearing a case involving forest and non-forest land in Haryana.
The highest court stressed the need to conserve forests and said it is because of the strict interpretation and exposition by the highest court that forest cover is increasing.
“Environment is more important than your civil rights,” said a bank headed by Judge AM Khanwilkar, adding: “The environment should take precedence over all other rights”.
The bench, also consisting of Judges AS Oka and CT Ravikumar, heard oral argument raising the issue of forest and non-forest land in connection with the interplay of provisions of the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900, the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and the land that is part of the development plan under the Faridabad Complex (Regulation and Development) Act, 1971.
The highest court noted that the fulcrum is about forest and its existence so that it does not disappear through land purchases.
It said urban planning is “somewhat materialistic approach”, while the issue of forest conservation has a different approach that relates to the environment.
“The forest must be preserved,” the bank said, adding: “Only through a strict interpretation and exposition by this court will the forest cover increase.” During the hearing, Attorney General Tushar Mehta told the court that, while hearing the Faridabad’s Kant Enclave case, the Supreme Court was informed about certain amendments to the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900.
He said the highest court had asked the state of Haryana on March 1, 2019 not to act without the court’s permission under the amendment law.
Mehta said the Supreme Court may have felt that because of the court’s ruling in the Kant Enclave case, in which it ordered certain unauthorized structures to be demolished there and saying they were built on forest land, this amendment was made. applied.
The Solicitor General said he made it clear to the court the next day that the demolition in Kant Enclave will proceed according to the order of the highest court.
He referred to an application filed by Haryana in that case and said that the state has applied for permission to act on the Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Act 2019 after its publication in the Official Gazette.
Mehta said the application is pending with another bank seized from the main case.
He told the highest court that the state’s application can be heard by this bank so that the issue can be looked at holistically.
“The difficulty is that, given the continuation of the stay, it would be a minor handicap on my part to address your nobles on the PLPA as we have to rely on the amendment,” said Mehta.
Senior lawyer Vikas Singh, who appeared before a number of petitioners, told the bank that one of the prayers in the plea is for the amendment bill to be implemented.
The bank noted that the petitioners request certain provisions and that one of the incidental provisions may be related to the designation issued by the Supreme Court on March 1, 2019.
“After hearing from the Solicitor General and counsel who appeared before the Petitioner in the present subpoena, as well as the amicus curiae….we believe that the prayer in IA (submitted by Haryana) should be addressed along with the prayers in the subpoena request…which has been interrogated by a three-judge bench for some time…”, the bench noted.
“We order accordingly. Register to do the necessary,” it said.
The hearing in the case was set to continue on Wednesday.
Haryana filed an affidavit last year with the highest court, which had previously asked her to clarify the factual basis of how the area was first notified as a forest area, be it under Union law or state law, as the case may be, as well as related matters that may be taken into account in answering the controversy in question.