The Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking direction to the respondents to ensure the full implementation of Forest Right Act before converting the Forest Villages in Revenue Villages.
The PIL further seeks direction to the respondents to see that three tier Monitoring Committee constituted under the Schedule Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Rules 2008, should work properly.
The case of the petitioners is that an identical matter is pending consideration before the Supreme Court wherein certain inquiries have been raised by the Supreme Court in W.P. No.109/2008 vide order dated 28.02.2019 . The petition is still pending before the Supreme Court. Therefore, till the decision is taken by the Supreme Court, no action could have been taken by the authorities for evicting and the committee should work properly and there should be full implementation of Forest Rights Act. Therefore, the petition is filed.
From the perusal of the record , the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice Vishal Mishra noted that the matter is still pending consideration before the Supreme Court. Vide order dated 28.02.2019, the Supreme Court has directed to keep the order dated 13.02.2019 on hold so far as eviction is concerned. Further, direction is given to the Chief Secretaries of various State Governments to file their affidavits covering all the aforesaid aspects and also to place on record the rejection orders and the details of the procedure followed for settlement of the claims and what are the main grounds on which the claims have been rejected. Further, the Forest Survey of India was directed to make a satellite survey and place on record the encroachment positions as far as possible.
The relief which has been claimed in the petition has virtually been granted by the Supreme Court as the eviction order is already kept on hold. The identical matter is pending consideration before the Supreme Court; therefore, parallel proceedings could not have been initiated by the petitioner. If the petitioners are still having any grievance, they can approach the Supreme Court in the pending writ petition by filing appropriate application in accordance with law. Thus, the petition cannot be entertained due to pendency of the writ petition before the Supreme Court , the Bench observed.