There should be no farmhouse or unauthorized structure in Aravalli forest: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court said that no unauthorized construction, be it farmhouses, would be allowed on forest land. The court has given four more weeks to the Faridabad Municipal Corporation to remove the encroachment on the Aravalli forest land near Khori village. The civic body informed the court that unauthorized structures on almost half the area have already been removed.

The counsel representing the Municipal Corporation, Justice A. M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari informed that 74 acres out of 150 acres have been cleared so far.

As senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing some of the petitioners, cited issues of rehabilitation, in view of a draft policy of the municipal corporation, the bench replied that people can share their suggestions on the issue with the municipal commissioner by Saturday .

The bench said the policy should be notified by the authority by July 31 and if the petitioners do not find it acceptable, they can challenge it.
On the occasion, Gonsalves referred to an RTI application by an IAS officer and said the reply was given a detailed list of structures, including farmhouses and hotels, on forest land.

To this the court made it clear that no illegal structures, be it a slum or a farm house, would be allowed on the forest land. All should be removed without any distinction.

“You can rest assured that on forest land, no unauthorized construction, be it farmhouse or otherwise, shall be allowed to reside,” the bench said. It emphasized that it should not be assumed that such illegal structures will not be removed by the Corporation and reiterated that all unauthorized structures on forest land will have to be removed.

The court also clarified that the direction to remove unauthorized constructions from forest land applies to all structures without exception and said that the corporation has acted in the right way after its June 7 order.

As the counsel for the civic body submitted that three more weeks are required to clear all unauthorized constructions on forest land, the bench said, we accept the request and take necessary steps in terms of the earlier order. Four weeks from today.

The top court had on June 7 directed the Haryana and Faridabad Municipal Corporations to remove all encroachments in the Aravalli forest, which includes around 10,000 residential constructions. It had sought a compliance report after removing all encroachments from the forest land near Khori village within six weeks.

A counsel for the petitioners argued that no shelter has been provided to the evicted families and between Covid and monsoon, the authorities should be informed before initiating action. The bench said these issues can be brought to the notice of the commissioner and fixed the matter for further hearing on August 3.