New Delhi
The Supreme Court has taken cognizance of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the constitutional validity of the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023, and has issued a notice to the Centre. The bench, consisting of Justices B.R. Gavai, Aravind Kumar, and Prashant Kumar Mishra, has agreed to examine the plea and has requested a response from the Union Ministries of Environment & Forests and Law & Justice within six weeks. According to senior advocate Prashanto Chandra Sen, instructed by advocate Kaushik Choudhary, the impugned amendment restricts the definition of forest, contravening the interpretation provided by the apex court in the 1996 TN Godavarman case. In the said case, the Supreme Court expanded the scope of forest land to encompass not only areas classified as forests in the conventional sense but also any region recorded as forest in government records, irrespective of its ownership or classification. The plea contends that the 2023 Amendment Act allows certain categories of projects and activities in forested areas, exempting them from the Forest Conservation Act arbitrarily. It further asserts that the provisions of the Amendment Act undermine fundamental public interest and the commitment to nature conservation, effectively delegating legislative functions to the government in an unlawful manner. The petition highlights that the 2023 Amendment Act blatantly violates multiple principles of Indian environmental law, including the precautionary principle, intergenerational equity, the principle of non-regression, and the public trust doctrine. With the Supreme Court now taking up the matter, the case has the potential to bring significant implications for the future of forest conservation and environmental protection in the country.
