The Supreme Court today put brakes on the Centre’s orders regularising encroachments in forests and giving land rights to tribals.If implemented, the orders issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, aimed at wooing the tribals, would threaten the forest cover in over two lakh hectares of land.Taking note of an advertisement issued by the Centre, a bench comprising Chief Justice V.N. Khare, Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice Arijit Pasayat, during the hearing of an application filed by amicus curiae Harish Salve in a pending case, issued a notice to the Centre and said the decision taken with regard to ‘‘de-reserving’’ forest land shall not be implemented.The ad described the revolutionary steps taken by the PM in giving land rights to tribals. When Salve submitted to the Court that the ministry had regularised all encroachments on forest land up to December 31, 1993 against the earlier cut-off date of October 25, 1980, the bench ordered that all such orders be stayed.
