Pleas on state action on forests dismissed

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday dismissed 176 petitions challenging the Maharashtra government’s action of taking over land after declaring it as a reserved forest, observing that it was anxious to maintain forest cover in the state.

A division bench of Justices S.C. Dharmadhikari and P.D. Naik dismissed the petitions challenging the government’s decision to change the names of the petitioners as owners from the revenue records under the Maharashtra Private Forest (Acquisition) Act, 1975.  “The anxiety of this court is to maintain forest cover in the state. It would be improper to rely on the one-sided version of the petitioners who are but builders and developers,” the bench ruled.

The petitioners claimed that the government, in June 1956, issued show cause notices to the petitioners’ predecessors under the Indian Forests Act.

“The show cause notices have not been acted upon, have lapsed, and ceased to have any effect. Therefore, the state government's action of changing the petitioners’ names after four decades is completely arbitrary and unreasonable,” the petitioners argued.

The state government opposed the petitions and said that its land was deemed as a reserved forest in 1975 itself, and hence, ownership was vested with the government. Any transaction of sale or purchase after 1975 would not confer any right on the purchaser and the sale could not be held as valid, it said.

The original owners never challenged the notices, the government argued.