SC issues notice on PIL challenging constitutionality of Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the Centre on a PIL challenging the constitutionality of the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023.

A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai, Aravind Kumar and Prashant Kumar Mishra agreed to examine the plea and sought a response of the Union Ministries of Environment & Forests and Law & Justice within a period of six weeks.

Senior advocate Prashanto Chandra Sen, instructed by advocate Kaushik Choudhary, pleaded that the impugned amendment seeks to restrict the definition of 'forest' as defined by the apex court in 1996 TN Godavarman case .

In that case, the Supreme Court had said that the ‘forest land’ will not only include forests as understood in the dictionary sense but also any area recorded as forest in the government record irrespective of the nature of ownership or classification thereof.

The 2023 Amendment Act arbitrarily permits several categories of projects and activities in the forest land, while exempting them from the purview of the Forest Conservation Act, the plea stated.

It said that provisions of the Amendment Act subvert basic public interest and commitment to nature conservation and unlawfully delegates what are essentially legislative functions to the government.

“The 2023 Amendment Act is in blatant violation of several principles of Indian environmental law -- precautionary principle, intergenerational equity, principle of non-regression and public trust doctrine,” read the petition.