Disposal of complaints regarding forest land encroachments
*No end to concealment despite strictures from then CJ
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 25: A committee of senior bureaucrats constituted to receive and decide all the complaints regarding encroachments of forest land in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has failed to strictly comply with the directions of the Division Bench of the High Court as a result of which public remains in dark about the progress made in retrieval of huge chunk of land from the encroachers.
In a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled Save Animal Value Environment (SAVE) Versus Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Others, a Division Bench of the High Court comprising the then Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul had on September 19, 2020 passed strictures against the authorities of the Forest and Revenue Departments for their failure to retrieve huge forest land under encroachment across the Union Territory.
Accordingly, the Division Bench had directed the Chief Secretary to appoint a committee with the time bound mandate of receiving and deciding all the complaints of encroachments of forest land. Moreover, there was explicit direction that all the proceedings and orders passed by the committee shall be posted on its dedicated website for the information of public.
The DB had made it clear that failure to abide by the orders shall be treated very seriously and shall render the person/authority concerned liable under the Contempt of Court Act.
Vide Government Order No.876-JK(GAD) dated September 19, 2020 a committee comprising Principal Secretary to the Government, Revenue Department, Commissioner/Secretary to the Government, Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Divisional Commissioners of Kashmir and Jammu was constituted within 6-point terms of references particularly to decide complaints pertaining to encroachment of forest land/property.
However, the committee of senior bureaucrats has failed to strictly comply with the directions of the Division Bench of the High Court as a result of which public remains in dark about the progress made in retrieval of huge chunk of land from the encroachers in the length and breadth of J&K UT.
Though a dedicated website of the committee has been constituted yet it doesn’t contain the details/information as was directed by the High Court. The website reveals that the committee had met only once on September 28, 2020 but the proceedings of the same have been concealed for the reasons best known to the Chairman and members of the committee. Moreover, there is no information vis-a-vis complaints regarding forest land encroachments received by the committee ever since its constitution.
The High Court had also directed that notices shall be served by the committee to the complainants at the addresses disclosed in the complaint and on the encroachers at the encroached property/land besides the notices shall be additionally posted on the website to be maintained by the committee. But this information is also not available on the website in blatant violation of the directive of the Division Bench headed by the then Chief Justice.
As per the directions of the High Court, the committee was supposed to decide all complaints received by it within one month of the receipt of the complaint extendable to two months for the reasons to be recorded and this period has already lapsed but progress made by the panel has remained a secret.
The only information available on the dedicated website is the order regarding framing of the committee and the list of forest division wise encroachers. The committee has also concealed the information vis-a-vis expunging of wrong entries regarding the forest land from the records and retrieval of the land made ever since the passing of directions by the High Court.
“Either the committee has failed to act as per the terms of references till date or it is intentionally depriving the people of the information in blatant violation of the directives of the High Court”, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
“There is no end to the concealment of information despite the fact that High Court had remarked that entire matter regarding encroachment of forest land was shrouded in secrecy and concealment just to encourage and assist usurpation of public property and the national wealth of forest”, they further said.
When contacted, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests J&K Dr Mohit Gera said, “the matter is sub-judice as such information vis-a-vis functioning of the committee cannot be revealed”. However, when his attention was drawn towards the order of the High Court, he refused to comment.
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