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New Delhi, May 15; The Supreme Court directed all the states and union territories to constitute special investigation teams to examine if any reserved forest land was allotted to any private parties for non-forestry purpose.
A bench of Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices Augustine George Masih and K Vinod Chandran directed the states and UTs to take steps to take back possession of such lands and handover the same to the forest department.
It added that 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.
It also directed the Chief Secretaries of all the states and the administrators of the UTs to constitute special teams to ensure that all such transfers take place within one year from today.
The bench said such land should be used only for the purpose of afforestation.
Bench added that we further direct 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.
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