NEW DELHI: An amendment in the Forest Act that allegedly resulted in vast tracts of forests losing legal protection and made them available for non-forest purposes has come under judicial scanner with the SC on Friday agreeing to examine its validity on a plea filed by a group of retired Indian Forest Service officers who alleged that the change in law “would exacerbate the ill-effects of climate change”.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai, Aravind Kumar and Prashant Kumar Mishra issued notice to the Centre seeking its response on the PIL filed through advocate Kaushik Choudhury on quashing the amendment brought a few months back.
The petitioners alleged that the change in law would “radically undermine India’s decades-old forest governance regime” and also violate the SC ruling by curtailing the definition of forest land.
The 13 petitioners from different states pointed out that the new definition of forest had left unprotected the most vulnerable forest areas of India as the 2023 amendment removed protections provided earlier to vast tracts of forest land. They said it restricted protections only to declared and notified forests under the Indian Forest Act.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai, Aravind Kumar and Prashant Kumar Mishra issued notice to the Centre seeking its response on the PIL filed through advocate Kaushik Choudhury on quashing the amendment brought a few months back.
The petitioners alleged that the change in law would “radically undermine India’s decades-old forest governance regime” and also violate the SC ruling by curtailing the definition of forest land.
The 13 petitioners from different states pointed out that the new definition of forest had left unprotected the most vulnerable forest areas of India as the 2023 amendment removed protections provided earlier to vast tracts of forest land. They said it restricted protections only to declared and notified forests under the Indian Forest Act.
