Supreme Court of India
T.N. GODAVARMAN THIRUMULKPAD ETC.versusUNION OF INDIA AND ORS. ETC. ETC.
- Citation
- 1997 INSC 226
- Decided
- 4 March 1997
- Disposal
- Disposed off
- Bench
- S VERMAB N KIRPAL
Holding
The Supreme Court upheld and modified its earlier order, directing the formation of a High Power Committee to inventory timber, ordering the closure of unlicensed saw‑mills, and prescribing detailed compliance measures under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
Summary
The Supreme Court, hearing a writ petition under Article 32 challenging the implementation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, modified its earlier interim order of 12 December 1996. It directed the constitution of a High Power Committee to prepare an inventory of all timber and timber products in forest areas and mills, and to oversee their sale through the State Forest Corporations. The Court ordered the closure of all unlicensed saw‑mills, veneer and plywood units in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and required the State Governments to furnish detailed affidavits on timber use, revenue and employment. Specific provisions were made for shade‑trees and fuel‑trees in Janmam lands, and for the disposal of timber stocks held by private parties in Jammu & Kashmir. The Court also clarified that its directions would not apply to minor forest produce and that the liability for expenses incurred would be determined at the final hearing. The writ petition was disposed with these directions.
Issues considered
- The scope and enforcement of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 with respect to timber inventory and sale.
- Whether unlicensed saw‑mills, veneer and plywood units should be closed pending compliance.
- Procedural requirements for the State Governments to report timber usage, revenue and employment.
- Application of the Court's earlier order to shade‑trees, fuel‑trees and minor forest produce.
- Liability for expenses incurred in implementing the Court's directions.
Legislation cited
Subjects
Forest Conservation ActTimber inventoryUnlicensed saw‑millsEnvironmental lawSupreme Court directionsForest produceMining permissionsState compliance
Judgment
A T.N. GODAVARMAN THIRUMULKPAD ETC.
v.
UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. ETC. ETC.
MARCH 4, 1997
-
B [J.S. VERMA AND B.N. KIRPAL, JJ.]
Forest Conservation Act, 1980 :
Protection and .Conservation of forests-f'elling of trees-Saw mills,
C veneer and plywood industries-Restriction on grant of fresh permis-
sion/licence tcr-Mining operations within forest areas-Further directions
given in continuation of order dated 12.12.1996 passed by this Court*.
*T.N. Godavannan 1hirumulkpad v. Union of India and Others,
(1997) 2 sec 267, referred to.
D
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition (C) No. 202
1995 Etc.
(Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India.)
E Ashok Desai, Attorney General, Altaf Ahmed, V.R. Reddy, Addi-
tional Solicitor Generals, N.N. Goswami, H.N. Salve, Kapil Sibal, Dushyant
Dave, Dr. Rajeev Dhawan, P.S. Poti, T.L.V. 1 Iyer,, Dr. Shankar Ghose,
Jayant Das'Tapas Raoy, M.S. Nargolkar, Anil B. Divan, Arun Jaitley, A.K.
Ganguli, N.S. Hegde, P.K. Goswami, P. Zaiwalla, K.K. Venogopal, G.L.
F Sanghi, C.S. Vaidyanathan, Shankar Ghose, Dushyant A. Dave, D.D.
Thakur, M.L. Jain, O.P. Sharma, D.P. Gupta, Raju Ramachandran, Sr.
Advs., S. Wasim A. Qadri, A.D.N. Rao, Ms. Anil Katiyar, A.K. Sharma, A.
Mariarputham; U. Hazarika, R.P. Sarmah, Shakil Ahmad, Kailash Vasdev,
Gopal Singh, J.S. Attri, L.R. Rath, Ms. H. Wahi, Ms. S. Hazarik~, K.J. '
G John, Shanta Vasudevan, P.K. Manohar, S. Arvindh, V. Balachandran, Ms.
B. Sunita Rao, T.V.S.N. Chari, Nikil Nayyar, J.P. Verghese, S.R. Setia,
A.T.M. Sampath, V.G. Pragasam, S.K. Agnihotri, B.P. Agarwal, Arunesh-
H
war Gupta, G. Prakash, Ms. Beena Prakash, Ranjan Mukherjee, R.K.
Mehta, B.S. Chahar, Ashok Mathur, K.R. Nagaraja, K.K. Tyagi, M. Mishra,
A. Subhashini, A. Ranganadhan, Rakesh Dwivedi, (Addi. Adv. General)
R.B .. Misra, Adv. for State of U.P., H.K. Puri, Rajesh Srivastava, Ujjwal
-
642
T.N.GODAVARMANTIURUMULKPADv. U.0.I. 643
Banerjee, K.B. Rohatagi, Ms. Aparna Rohtagi Jain, S.M. Jadhav, H.S. A
Munjral, R.S. Suri, Ms. S. Janani, Prem Malhotra, D.S. Mehra, B.B. Singh,
- T. Anil Kumar, D.P. Gupta, J.S. Manhas, P.H. Parekh, Sameer Parekh, Ms.
Indoo Verma, Amit Dhingra, M.L. Lahoty, Pawan Sharma, Himanshu
Shekhar, Rana Mukherjee, Ms. Sunita Mukherjee, Goodwill Indeevar, P.P.
Tripathy, Anil Agrawala, Raj Kumar Gupta, H.V.P. Sharma Rajesh, Vijay B
Hansaria, Sunil K. Jain J.K. Bhatia, C.K. Sasi, D.L.N. Rao, Sunil Dogra,
U.K. Sagar, P.P. Singh, AK. Panda, N.C. Phukhar, Dayan Krishnan, Niki!
Nayar, K.J. John, Joy Joseph, Ms. Malini Poduval, K.M.K'. Nair, E.M.S.
Anam, Janes Koshy, S. Ravindra Bhat, D.K. Mishra, Naveen R. Nath, Ms.
Hetu Arora, Ajit Pudussery, Roy Abrahano, Ms. Baby Krishnan, Gopal
Prasad, Ejaz Maqbool, V. Chidambaresh, B.V. Deepak, Ramesh Babu, C
M.R., M.K.D. Namboodri, Ms. C.K. Sucharita, Sushi! Kumar Jain, R.K.
Pareek, Gopal Modi, AP. Dhamija, Pradeep Aggarwal, Ms. Pinky Anand,
Ms. Geeta Luthra, D.N. Goburdhan, R.K. Gupta, K.K. Gupta, Bijan
Ghosh, AN. Dawn, AC. Majmudar, B.K. Satija, Ms. Dipti Choudhary,
Sanjay Bhownick, R.C. Gubrele, K.R. Gupta, Vivek Sharma, Ms. Nanita D
Sharma, Ashok Sudan, Uday Kumar, Sagar, E.C. Vidyasarar, R.C. Verma,
Ms. Manik Karanjawala, Rajiv Mehta, P.P. Singh, Ms. Rekha Pandey, L.R.
Singh, K.L. Janjani, D.M. Nargolkar, Bharat Sangal, U.U. Lalit (AC.), Ms.
Purnima Bhat, Ms. Meenakshi Sakhardande, Mahender Vyas, J.S. Manhas,
AK. Sharma, Ms. Anil Katiyar, R. Sasiprabhu, AV. Palli, Zafar Shah,
(Atul Sharma) for Ms. Rekha Palli, Ms. Kavita Wadia, S.K. Bhattacharya, E
S.K. Dingra, S.K. Agnihotri, B.P. AgarVl'.al, G. Prakash, Ms. Beena Prakash,
Ranjan Mukherjee, Raj Kumar Mehta, M.A. Krisha Moorthy, J.B. Ravi, S.
Balakrishnan, R.N. Keshwani, Chandrakanta Nayak, Joseph Pookkatt, for
the appearing parties.
The following Order of the Court was delivered :
F
1. After hearing Mr. Harish N. Salve, the learned Amicus Curiae,
- learned Attorney General and learned counsel appearing for the States and
other parties in these matters, it is clear that no substantial variation in the
earlier order dated 12.12.1996 is required to be made as an interim G
measure; and that some minor variation to the extent indicated hereinafter
is all that is required to be done at present.
We are satisfied that there is need to constitute a High Power
Committee to oversee the strict and faithful implementation of the orders H
644 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1997] 2 S.C.R
A of this Court in the North Eastern Region and for certain ancillary pur-
poses. Accordingly we dire\:! as under :
(i) There shall be a Committee as under :
(a) Shri T.V. Rajeshwar, Chairman;
-
B
(b) Shri R.N. Kaul, Retd. LG. of Forests - Member; and
( c) one representative nomiriated by the Ministry of Environment
and Forests (MOEF) - Member Secretary.
C Shrl T.V. Rajeshwar and Shri R.N. Kaul have given their consent for
the purpose.
(ii) This Committee shall oversee preparation of inventory of all
timber in· all forms (including timber products
D (a) lying in the forest or in transit depots, and
(b) lying in mill premises).
The inventory should, wherever possible, indicate the origin and
source of the timber.
E
The Committee may for this purpose select suitable persons who
would be made available by the concerned State Government at its request.
As far as possible, such inventory should be prepared within eight
weeks from today.
F
(iii) The Committee may, if it considers appropriate, permit the use
or sale of any part of the timber or timber products. Any sale shall be
-
effected through the Forest Corporation of the State under overall super-
vision of the Committee.
G (iv) The net sale proceeds after deduction of the transaction related
costs and payment of wages to the labour and staff shall be deposited by
or through the Forest Corporation Forest Dept!. in a designated account.
The modalities will be worked out by the Committee.
H (v) The Committee may, through the Amicus Curiae, apply for such
T.N. GODAVARMAN THIRUMULKPAD v. U.0.1. 645
directions from time to time as it considers appropriate. A
(vi) The MOEF will make available as far as possible within a week
suitable office space and provide secretarial and all other related facilities
in Delhi (including local transport and telecommunication) befitting the
stature of the Committee.
B
The MOEF will make arrangements for and meet expenses of travel
- of the Committee. All arrangements for stay etc. of the Committee (outside
Delhi) as may be necessary, would be the responsibility of the State Govt.
concerned.
The Assam Government will make similar office and other facilities C
available in Gauhati.
It is for the sake of convenience at this stage that the Central
Government and the State Governments are being directed to make certain
payments and meet all the expenses. However, the question of liability for D
payment of these amounts would be considered at the final hearing and
suitable directions for the purpose given at that stage indicating the prin-
ciple for determining the liability for making the payment.
2. It is clarified that the directions contained in the order dated
12.12.1996 and this order would not apply to minor forest produce, includ- E
ing bamboos, etc.
3. The State of Meghalaya has asserted in its affidavit that a sig-
nificant quantity of timber is required for use in the State itself by the rural
tribal population. It has also asserted that there is a loss of revenue to the
State Government on account of restrictions placed by the order of F
12.12.1996; and a large number of people of the State have been deprived
of the employment. The State. is. directed to file an affidavit with full and
complete particulars of :
(i) the quantity of timber which comes from its forest for use by
the rural tribal population, the extent to which it is made ·G
available to the rural tribal population including the terms on
- which it is so made available;
(ii) the revenue derived by the State by way of royalty from the
minerals, mines and forest areas, purchase tax on export of °'-H
646 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1991] 2 S.C.R.
A timber; sale value of timber drawn from the Govt. forests and
the extent and quantity of such sale and the manner of sales;
(iii) the number of wood-based industries within the State and the
number of person employed in such industry.
B 4. All unlicensed saw mills, veneer and plywood industries in the
State of Maharashtra and the State of Uttar Pradesh are to be closed
forthwith and the State Government would not remove or relax the condi-
tion for grant of permission/licence for the opening of any such saw mill,
veneer and plywood industry and it shall also not grant any fresh permis-
sion/licence for this purpose. The Chief Secretary of the State will ensure
C strict compliance of this direction and file a compliance report within two
weeks.
5. A total of 5322.97 cubic meters of timber presently held by the
private parties in their stock purchased from the J & K State Forest
Corporation as per Annexure D to the affidavit dated 18th February, 1997
D filed on behalf ~f the Government of J & K is permitted to be moved; and
any such movement be effected after due certification, consignment-wise
made by the Managing Director of the State Corporation which will include
certification that the timber has come from State Forest Corporation
sources (as per para 6(a) at page 11 of the earlier order dated 12.12.1996).
E The stocks of kail, chir and fir in the depots of the Forest Corporation are
permitted to be disposed of by the Forest Corporation in any manner which
would include movement and disposal of the same even outside the State
as per the requirements as indicated in above said para 6(a). All this would
be done by the Forest Corporation itself.
F The above directions are to be read along with those contained in
the order dated 12.12.1996.
-
MINING MATTERS
We direct that -
G
1. where the lessee has not forwarded the particulars for seeking
permission under the FCA, he may do so immediately;
2. the State Government shall forward all complete pending
applications within a period of 2 weeks from today to the
-
H Central Government for requisite decisions;
T.N.GODAVARMANTIIIRUMULKPADv. U.0.1. 647.
3. applications received (or completed) hereafter would be for- A
warded within two weeks of their being so made.
4. the central Government shall dispose of all such applications
within six weeks of their being received. Where the grant of
final clearance is delayed, the Central Government may con-
sider the grant of working permissions as per existing prac- B
tice.
General Directions
It is made clear that the order passed by this Court in these matters,
including the order dated 12.12.1996 and the present order shall be obeyed C
and carried out by the Union Government as well as the State Govern-
ments, notwithstanding any order or direction passed by a court, including
a High Court or Tribunal, to the contrary.
We further direct the Reai.otrar General to communicate the order dated
1212.1996 as well as the prese;-order to the Registrars of all the High Courts D .
to ensure strict compliance. It is also clarified that the orders passed by this Court
including the order dated 12.12.1996 and this order will apply to all Autonomous
Hill Council in the North-Eastern States as well as the Union Territories.
It is made clear that all the concerned authorities would, in the
meantime, continue to examine the various aspects of the problems requir- E
ing solution and try to solve these problems in collaboration with the ·
Central Government and the State Governments. An efficacious exercise
of this kind would enable reduction of the area which may require judicial
scrutiny and adjudication in these matters.
I.A. Nos. 6-14 of 1996. F
IN
Civil Appeal Nos. 357-75 of 1977.
WITH G
IA. No. 1 of 1996.
IN
Civil Appeal No. 2457 of 1977. H
648 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1997]2 S.C.R.
A WITH
I.A. Nos. 3-4 of 1996.
IN
B Civil Appeal Nos. 1344-45 of 1976.
WITH
. Writ Petition No. 202 of 1995
c ORDER
In modification of the earlier orders in the Civil Appeal Nos. 357-75
of 1977, 2457 of 1977 and 1344-45 of 1976 and Writ Petition No. 202 of
1995, it is directed as under :
D
(i) . As far as shade-trees in the Janmam areas are concerned, they
would be governed by para 4(a) of our order dated 12.12.1996
insofar as it applies to the State of Tamil Nadu. However, all
trees so felled in the Janmam areas shall be delivered by the
E plantation to the State Govt. which will be free to deal with and
dispose of the same. The State Govt. shall, however, keep a
record of all such trees received by it. This will apply also to
trees felled prior to the interim orders which are still in the
possession of the plantations.
F
(ii) Insofar as fuel trees are concerned, we direct that felling
of fuel trees be carried on strictly in accordance with the
Report of TANTEA. After felling of fuel trees, the Plan-
tations shall subm,it the account of such trees to the State
Govt. They may consume for their own use such number
G of fuel trees as are necessary and given an account of the
same to the State Govt. Any fuel trees not required by them
would be surrendered by them to the State Govt. and the
State Govt. would be free to deal with such trees. The State.
Govt. shall, however, maintain an account of any fuel trees
H received by it.
T.N.GODAVARMANTHIRUMULKPADv. U.O.I. 649
(iii) We further clarify that the direction that there will be no A
further expansion of the Plantation so as to involve encroach-
ment (by way of clearing or otherwise of forest) will apply to
the Janmam Lands as well.
I.A. Nos. 6-14 of 1996 in CA Nos. 357-75 of 1977, I.A. No. 1 of
1996 in CA No. 2457 of 1977, I.A. Nos. 3-4 of 1996 in CA Nos. B
1344-45 of 1976 are allowed in the above terms.
The Golf Course at Kodaikannal and Udagamandalam are permitted
to function subject to the condition that the district collector and the Distt.
Forest Officer of the area concerned are associated with the functioning C
of the same till the approval of the Governm~nt of India is received.
R.P. W.P. disposed of. I.As. allowed with some directions.
-
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