No farmhouses or any unauthorised structures in Aravali forest: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has held that no unauthorised constructions be it farmhouses will be allowed on forest land as it granted four more weeks to the Faridabad Municipal Corporation to remove encroachments on Aravali forest land near Khori villageThe civic body informed the court that unauthorised structures on nearly half of the area has already been removed Counsel representing the Municipal Corporation informed a bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari that so far 74 acres out of 150 acres have been clearedAs senior advocate Colin Gonsalves representing some petitioners cited the issues with the rehabilitation in view of a draft policy of the Municipal Corporation the bench responded that people can share their suggestions on the issue with the Municipal Commissioner by July 24 and they can be considered on the aspect of feasibilityThe bench said that the policy should be notified by the authority by July 31 and if petitioners find it not acceptable then they can challenge it At this juncture Gonsalves cited an RTI application by an IAS officer and added that a detailed list of structures including farmhouses and hotels on forest land was given in responseTo this the bench said You can be rest assured that on forest land no unauthorised constructions will be allowed to remain be it farmhouses or others It emphasised that it shouldnt be presumed that such illegal structure will not be removed by the corporation and reiterated all unauthorised structures on forest land would have to be removedIt observed the direction to remove unauthorised constructions from forest land applies to all structures without any exception and noted that the corporation has moved into action in right earnest after its June 7 orderAlso Read Prior sanction from competent authority needed to prosecute govt servant Supreme CourtAs the civic body counsel submitted that three more weeks are required to clear all the unauthorised constructions on forest land the bench said We accede to the request and grant four weeks further time from today for taking necessary steps in terms of the earlier orderThe apex court had on June 7 had directed Haryana and the Faridabad Municipal Corporation to remove all encroachments which consisted of around 10000 residential constructions in Aravali forest It had sought compliance report after removal of all encroachments from forest land near Khori village within six weeksA counsel for petitioners contended no shelter has been provided to the evicted families and amid Covid19 and monsoon the authorities should inform in advance before initiating the action The bench observed these issues can be brought to the notice of the Commissioner and fixed the matter for further hearing on August 3This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever