[Marxistindia] Brinda Karat's letter to Union Minister Prakash Javadekar

[news from the cpi(m)]

September 13, 2019
Press Release
 
CPI(M) Polit Bureau Member, Brinda Karat has addressed a letter to Shri
Prakash Javadekar, Hon'ble Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate
Change, Government of India on the ongoing petition in the Supreme Court
challenging the Forest Rights Act. The full text of the letter is being
released for publication.
 
 
 
***
Dear Shri Prakash Javadekar ji,
 
This is to draw your attention to the ongoing petition in the Supreme Court
challenging the Forest Rights Act. Your Ministry is the main respondent in
the case even though it is the Ministry of Tribal Affairs which is the nodal
Ministry for the implementation of the Act. It is a matter of deep concern
and objection that on crucial dates of the court hearing, there is no senior
legal representative of the Central Government to defend the law. Yesterday,
that is on September 12th, while taking up the case, the Court specifically
asked whether the Solicitor General was present, but he was conspicuous by
his absence. There was no one to argue against the fresh applications moved
by the petitioners against the interests of lakhs of tribal communities who
are forest dwellers. 
 
You are well aware that ever since the February orders of the Supreme Court
for the eviction of lakhs of tribal families, who have been wrongfully
denied their rights under the FRA, a sense of deep insecurity and
vulnerability haunts tribal communities since the subsequent stay order on
the evictions is temporary and tenuous. On that crucial date too, the
Solicitor General and, indeed, all senior counsel were missing.
 
You will understand why after yesterday's court hearing,  there is a strong
feeling of unease that the absence of top law officials  is not coincidence
but connivance. This feeling gets strengthened when it is known that the
Ministry of Tribal Affairs had specifically written to concerned people to
ensure the presence of the SG. 
 
There were three applications moved by the petitioners, all of which should
have been strongly opposed  by the Government.
 
The first application asks for the court to bar State governments from
reviewing rejections, to stop gram sabhas from inviting fresh claims, and to
notify critical wildlife habitats. In other words, they are seeking to
freeze a process that even the government admits was illegal and resulted in
millions of people being denied their legal rights. This is a blatantly
illegal and unconstitutional demand.
 
The second application demands that the Forest Survey of India should
produce data on "encroachment" in forests on the basis of its existing maps,
without even getting details of which claims were made under the Act. The
idea, apparently, is that all forest destruction after 2005 should be blamed
on forest dwellers. This claim is being made even though the Ministry has
already issued several orders, and the Gujarat High Court has also held that
satellite imagery, on its own, is useless in verifying forest rights. 
 
Finally, the petitioners filed an application for impleading the Forest
Survey of India to make out a case about satellite pictures of forest
encroachment. 
 
In the absence of opposing arguments, the Court accepted the  impleading of
the FSI as a party in the case. 
 
For the last year and a half, step by step, the outrageous legal challenge
to the FRA is going forward without any defence by the Central Government. 
 
In a recent response to my concerns regarding the draft amendments to the
Forest Act 1927, you had said that your Ministry is committed to protect the
rights of tribal communities. I regret to say that this is not seen in the
role of the MOEFCC in most critical issue of challenge to the Forest Rights
Act in the Supreme Court case. 
 
The next date of hearing is fixed for November 26th.  I hope you will
personally give it some attention so as to take corrective measures.
 
With regards,
Yours sincerely
 
Sd/-
(Brinda Karat)
 
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