SC Declines To Hear Plea Seeking Stay On Forest Notification

New Delhi, March 02: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a plea seeking stay on a government notification which gives forest officers the power to take coercive steps in offences such as felling of trees and pasturing in forests in Haryana. A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) of NGO Nyaya Bhoomi which alleged officials were misusing the Forest Notification of 1992, forcing poor villagers of Faridabad area to bribe them. The notification prescribes penal action against the offenders who undertake cultivation, pasturing, quarry of stones, cutting of trees and set the forest on fire inside the notified area. B B Sharan, founder of the NGO, has sought an interim stay on the notification and issuance of notice to the Centre and other government agencies alleging it has prevented the state government from carrying out development activities in the Arawali range of forests. The selection of forest areas have been done arbitrarily and poor villagers were forced to bribe forest officials for cutting trees and grazing goats, the petition alleged.

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