Delhi High Court: Tushar Rao Gedela, J., opined that it would be apposite to appoint a Retired Judge of this Court to head the Internal Departmental Committee (‘the Committee’), so as to ensure that the other departments were under an obligation to co-operate with the Committee on the protection of deemed forests. Thus, the Court requested Justice Nazmi Waziri (Retd.), former Judge of this Court to accept the Chairmanship of the Committee, which would ably assist the Judge.
The Court noted that three meetings were held on 6-2-2024, 6-3-2024 and 3-4-2024, by the Committee constituted by this Court, to discuss the issue of protection and management of deemed forests.
Dr. P. Viswakannan, the Chief Conservator of Forest described that the Committee headed by him was fervently and sincerely trying to collate the information relatable to the said issue from various land-owning agencies and the same would be successfully collated and presented to this Court in the form of a report.
Amici Curiae Gautam Narayan and Prabhsahay Kaur submitted that the issue had been pending before the Supreme Court since 1997 onwards and as could be seen, the Forest Area was being denuded day by day. Thus, they suggested that the nomination of a Retired Judge of this Court would instill more seriousness in the various departments to act in tandem with each other.
The Court opined that it was clear that all the parties were adverting and moving towards the goal of ensuring that the forests and deemed forests both were protected from further incursions and denudation of the forest trees. However, it appeared that the other land-owning departments, though party to the present petition, were not serious enough in collecting or assisting the Committee in collating the necessary documents, maps, and other records.
The Court opined that it would be apposite to appoint a Retired Judge of this Court to head the Committee, so as to ensure that the other departments were under an obligation to co-operate with the Committee. Thus, the Court requested Justice Nazmi Waziri (Retd.), former Judge of this Court to accept the Chairmanship of the Committee, which would ably assist the Judge. The Court stated that Dr. P. Vishwakannan, Chief Conservator of Forest, would be of great assistance to the Chairman and was requested to continue to do so.
The Court requested the Government of Delhi to ensure that all facilities and secretarial assistance, as required by Justice Nazmi Waziri (Retd.) was provided to him at the earliest.
The Court left it to Justice Nazmi Waziri (Retd.) to decide his honorarium and the facilities required for the smooth functioning of the Committee. The Court stated that the Committee would be at liberty to send its regular reports to this Court apart from requiring any further orders for better implementation of the reference.
The matter would next be listed on 29-7-2024.
[Neeraj Sharma v. Union of India, 2024 SCC OnLine Del 2470, Order dated 4-4-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Petitioner: Aditya N. Prasad, Advocate; Gautam Narayan, Prabhsahay Kaur, Advocates (Amicus Curiae)
For the Respondents: Nidhi Raman, CGSC; Avishkar Singhvi, ASC; Debarchan De, Kritika Gupta, Naved Ahmed, Vivek Kumar Singh, Advocates; Dr. P. Viswakannan, Chief Conservator of Forest
