TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (4) TMI 1155
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....s we know: the earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself." 3. A well merited judgment, passed in A.S. No. 145 of 1994 by the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the State of Telangana and the State of Andhra Pradesh, decided on a conscious consideration of the issues raised before it, confirming the one rendered by the Trial Court, was reviewed like an Appellate Court, based upon the materials that emanated after its filing, at the instance of a party defendant in whose favour a decree was granted and that too by acting without the requisite jurisdiction, is under challenge in this appeal. 4. We are dealing with a case where an instrumentality of the State, despite a categorical finding of the suit property being a forest land, took different stands, but finally rectified by way of an affidavit before this Court. This act of taking different stands resulted in facilitating the impugned order being passed in favour of the respondents, setting aside the concurrent judgments rendered by two....
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....ts declared reserved..." (emphasis supplied) Section 2 of the A.P. Forest Act "2. Definitions:- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires xxx xxx xxx (f) 'forest officer' means any person appointed by the Government or by any officer empowered by the government in this behalf,- [(i) to be the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Special Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Chief Conservator of Forests, Conservator, Deputy Conservator, Assistant Conservator, Divisional Forest Officer, Sub-Divisional Forest Officer, Ranger, Deputy Ranger, Forester or Forest Section Officer, Forest Guard or Forest Beat Officer, Assistant Beat Officer, Thanadar, Checking Officer or Plantation Watcher or any other person or authority as may be notified;] (ii) to perform any function of a forest officer under this Act or any rule or order made thereunder; but does not include a Forest Settlement Officer appointed under Clause (c) of sub-section (1) of Section 4;" Section 4 of the A.P. Forest Act "4. Notification by Government:- (1) Whenever it is proposed to cons....
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.... or forest produce. (2) No patta in such land shall be granted by or on behalf of the Government." Section 8 of the A.P. Forest Act "8. Inquiry by Forest Settlement Officer:- (1) The Forest Settlement Officer shall consider every objection and inquire into every claim made under Section 6, after recording in writing the statements made or evidence given in pursuance of the proclamation published or notice served under that section. He shall record any representation which the forest officer, if any, representing the Forest Department under sub-section (3) of Section 4, may make in respect of any such objection or claim. (2) The evidence under sub-section (1) shall be recorded in the manner provided by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 in appealable cases." Section 9 of the A.P. Forest Act "9. Powers of Forest Settlement Officer:- For the purpose of an inquiry under Section 8, the Forest Settlement Officer may exercise the following powers, namely: (a) power to enter by himself or to authorise any officer to enter upon any land and to survey, demarcate and make a map of the land; and (b) the powers conferred on a Civil Cour....
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.... the orders of Forest Settlement Officer:- (1) Where a claim is rejected wholly or in part, the claimant may, within ninety days from the date of the order under sub-section (1) of Section 10 and within sixty days from the date of the order under sub-section (1) of Section 11, prefer an appeal to the District Court having jurisdiction in respect of such rejection only. (2) Where a claim is admitted under Section 10 or Section 11 in the first instance wholly or in part and where such claim does not relate to the acquisition of any land under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, a like appeal, subject to the same period of limitation and subject to the same conditions, may be preferred to the District Court having jurisdiction on behalf of the Government by the forest officer or other person, generally or specially empowered by the Government in this behalf. (3) Every order passed on appeal under this section shall be final. (4) Where the District Court, on appeal, decides that the claim or such part thereof as has been rejected should be admitted, the Forest Settlement Officer shall proceed to deal with it in like manner as if it has been in the first instance ....
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....nder Clause (c) of sub-section (1) of Section 4, thus, making a distinction between a Forest Officer and a Forest Settlement Officer. 8. Under Section 4(2) of the A.P. Forest Act, a Forest Settlement Officer shall be an officer of the Revenue Department not below the rank of a Revenue Divisional Officer. Wide powers have been conferred upon the State Government to declare any land as a reserved forest, subject to due compliance of the other provisions. This has to be done by a notification published in Andhra Pradesh Gazette and District Gazette under Section 4(1), by declaring its intention through a proposal. 9. The legislature consciously did not confer any role on an officer working under the forest department, by specifically naming an officer of the revenue department with his designation for determining qualification, as Forest Settlement Officer. Such an officer has to exercise quasi-judicial power. 10. After the commencement of proceedings under Section 4 of the A.P. Forest Act, even the Government is restrained from issuing any patta to any individual, for the reason that all disputes would have to be adjudicated under the Act, be it one of title under Section 10....
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....s like asking for the moon. A forensic defeat cannot be avenged by an invitation to have a second look, hopeful of discovery of flaws and reversal of result..." 15. The legislature, in its wisdom, has chosen to restrict the scope of review from time to time. To indicate this legislative shift, Section 376 and 378 of the Code of Civil Procedure 1859 (hereinafter referred to as "the CPC 1859"), Section 623 of the Code of Civil Procedure 1877 (hereinafter referred to as "the CPC 1877"), Section 114 and Order XLVII Rule 1 of the CPC 1908 are reproduced herein below, Section 376 of the CPC 1859 "376 - Review of Judgement on discovery of new evidence: Any person considering himself aggrieved by a decree of a Court of original jurisdiction, from which no appeal shall have been preferred to a Superior Court - or by a decree of a District Court in appeal from which no special appeal shall have been admitted by the Sudder Court - or by a decree of the Sudder Court from which either no appeal may have been preferred to Her Majesty in Council, or an appeal having been preferred no proceedings in the suit have been transmitted to Her Majesty in Council - and who from the discover....
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.... may apply for a review of judgement notwithstanding the pendency of an appeal by some other party, except when the ground of such appeal is common to the applicant and the appellant, or when, being a respondent, he can present to the appellate Court the case on which he applies for the review." (emphasis supplied) 17. Thus, taking note of the existence of a larger power to review, the legislature brought forth a change by adding the words "after the exercise of due diligence". Additionally, the words "on account of some mistake or error apparent on the face of the record" were also added. This conscious inclusion clearly restricts the power of review. Section 114 of the CPC 1908 "114. Review.-Subject as aforesaid, any person considering himself aggrieved,- (a) by a decree or order from which an appeal is allowed by this Code, but from which no appeal has been preferred, (b) by a decree or order from which no appeal is allowed by this Code, or (c) by a decision on a reference from a Court of Small Causes, may apply for a review of judgment to the Court which passed the decree or made the order, and the Court may make such order the....
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....prudent man. Though an element of flexibility is given to any evidence or matter on its discovery, it has to be one which was not available to the court earlier. It could not have been produced despite due diligence, meaning thereby that it should have been available and, therefore, in existence at least at the time of passing the decree. 20. Mistake or error apparent on the face of record would debar the court from acting as an appellate court in disguise, by indulging in a re-hearing. A decision, however erroneous, can never be a factor for review, but can only be corrected in appeal. Such a mistake or error should be self-evident on the face of record. The error should be grave enough to be identified on a mere cursory look, and an omission so glaring that it requires interference in the form of a review. Being a creature of the statute, there is absolutely no room for a fresh hearing. The court has got no role to involve itself in the process of adjudication for a second time. Instead, it has to merely examine the existence of an apparent mistake or error. Even when two views are possible, the court shall not indulge itself by going into the merits. 21. The material produ....
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....ond was that there was a patent illegality in permitting the appellant to question, in a single writ petition, settlement made in favour of different respondents. We are afraid that neither of the reasons mentioned by the learned Judicial Commissioner constitutes a ground for review. It is true as observed by this Court in Shivdeo Singh v. State of Punjab [AIR 1963 SC 1909] there is nothing in Article 226 of the Constitution to preclude a High Court from exercising the power of review which inheres in every court of plenary jurisdiction to prevent miscarriage of justice or to correct grave and palpable errors committed by it. But, there are definitive limits to the exercise of the power of review. The power of review may be exercised on the discovery of new and important matter or evidence which, after the exercise of due diligence was not within the knowledge of the person seeking the review or could not be produced by him at the time when the order was made; it may be exercised where some mistake or error apparent on the face of the record is found; it may also be exercised on any analogous ground. But, it may not be exercised on the ground that the decision was erroneous on meri....
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....s by the learned Additional Solicitor - General, who has now been entrusted to appear for the respondent, was never brought to our attention when the appeals were heard, we may also examine whether the judgment suffers from an error apparent on the face of the record. Such an error exists if of two or more views canvassed on the point it is possible to hold that the controversy can be said to admit of only one of them. If the view adopted by the Court in the original judgment is a possible view having regard to what the record states, it is difficult to hold that there is an error apparent on the face of the record." (emphasis supplied) • Parsion Devi v. Sumitri Devi, (1997) 8 SCC 715 "9. Under Order 47 Rule 1 CPC a judgment may be open to review inter alia if there is a mistake or an error apparent on the face of the record. An error which is not self-evident and has to be detected by a process of reasoning, can hardly be said to be an error apparent on the face of the record justifying the court to exercise its power of review under Order 47 Rule 1 CPC. In exercise of the jurisdiction under Order 47 Rule 1 CPC it is not permissible for an erroneous ....
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....eal, but with review by the Court which had already disposed of the case. In England it is only under strictly limited circumstances that an application for such a review can be entertained. In India, however, provision has for long past been made by legislation for review in addition to appeal. But as the right is the creation of Indian statue law, it is necessary to see what such statutory law really allows. The law applicable to the present case is laid down by O. 47, R. 1, of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. This Rule is enacted in the following terms:- "Any person considering himself aggrieved, (a) by a decree or order from which an appeal is allowed, but from which no appeal has, been preferred (b) by a decree or order from which no appeal is hereby allowed, or (c) by a decision on a reference from a Court of Small Causes, and who, from the discovery of new and important matter or evidence which, after the exercise of due diligence, was not within his knowledge or could not be produced by him at the time when the decree was passed or order made, or on account of some mistake or error apparent on the face of the record, or for any other sufficient reason, desires to....
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.... may have been influenced by the wider form of expression then in force, and these decisions may have had weight with the learned Judges who, in cases turning on the subsequent Code, had regarded the intention of the legislature as remaining unaltered. But their Lordships are unable to assume that the language used in the Codes of 1877 and 1908 is intended to leave open the questions which were raised on the language used in the earlier legislation. They think that R. 1 of O. 47 must be read as in itself definitive of the limits within which review is to-day permitted, and that reference to practice under former and different statutes is misleading. So construing it they interpret the words "any other sufficient reason" as meaning a reason sufficient on grounds at least analogous to those specified immediately previously. Such an interpretation excludes from the power of review conferred the course taken by the second and third Division Bench, composed of Wilberforce, J., and Scott Smith, J., and by Wilberforce, J., and LeRossignol, J., respectively. The result is that the judgments given by these two Division Benches ought to be set aside, and that of the Bench of the Chief Court ....
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....ee or order as the case may be in the court, which may order or pass the decree. From the bare reading of Section 114CPC, it appears that the said substantive power of review under Section 114CPC has not laid down any condition as the condition precedent in exercise of power of review nor the said section imposed any prohibition on the court for exercising its power to review its decision. However, an order can be reviewed by a court only on the prescribed grounds mentioned in Order 47 Rule 1CPC, which has been elaborately discussed hereinabove. An application for review is more restricted than that of an appeal and the court of review has limited jurisdiction as to the definite limit mentioned in Order 47 Rule 1CPC itself. The powers of review cannot be exercised as an inherent power nor can an appellate power be exercised in the guise of power of review." (emphasis supplied) Evidence cannot be Reappreciated in Review • Kerala SEB v. Hitech Electrothermics & Hydropower Ltd., (2005) 6 SCC 651 "10. This Court has referred to several documents on record and also considered the documentary evidence brought on record. This Court on a consideration of t....
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....ssive society. PRECEDENTS Relevance of Directive Principles of State Policy • Sachidanand Pandey v. State of W.B., (1987) 2 SCC 295 "4. In India, as elsewhere in the world, uncontrolled growth and the consequent environmental deterioration are fast assuming menacing proportions and all Indian cities are afflicted with this problem. The once Imperial City of Calcutta is no exception. The question raised in the present case is whether the Government of West Bengal has shown such lack of awareness of the problem of environment in making an allotment of land for the construction of a Five Star Hotel at the expense of the zoological garden that it warrants interference by this Court? Obviously, if the government is alive to the various considerations requiring thought and deliberation and has arrived at a conscious decision after taking them into account, it may not be for this Court to interfere in the absence of mala fides. On the other hand, if relevant considerations are not borne in mind and irrelevant considerations influence the decision, the court may interfere in order to prevent a likelihood of prejudice to the public. Whenever a problem of ecology ....
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....Constitution. 9. In the matter of enforcement of rights under Article 21 of the Constitution, this Court, besides enforcing the provisions of the Acts referred to above, has also given effect to fundamental rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution and has held that if those rights are violated by disturbing the environment, it can award damages not only for the restoration of the ecological balance, but also for the victims who have suffered due to that disturbance. In order to protect "life", in order to protect "environment" and in order to protect "air, water and soil" from pollution, this Court, through its various judgments has given effect to the rights available, to the citizens and persons alike, under Article 21 of the Constitution. The judgment for removal of hazardous and obnoxious industries from the residential areas, the directions for closure of certain hazardous industries, the directions for closure of slaughterhouse and its relocation, the various directions issued for the protection of the Ridge area in Delhi, the directions for setting up effluent treatment plants to the industries located in Delhi, the directions to tanneries etc., are all j....
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....re that this Nature he's destroying is this God he's worshiping." Hubert Reeves. Canadian astrophysicist 28. Human beings indulge themselves in selective amnesia when it comes to fathom the significance of forests. It is the forests which give life to the Earth by replacing carbon dioxide with oxygen, thereby providing a hospitable environment for the steady growth of diverse life forms. It's the spirit of the forest that moves the Earth. History shall not be understood from the jaundiced eyes of humans but through the prism of the environment, the forest in particular. 29. Forests not only provide for and facilitate the sustenance of life, but they also continue to protect and foster it. They continue to tackle the ever-increasing carbon dioxide emissions produced by humans in the name of development, while striving to sustain all species. Despite the unblemished, selfless and motherly service rendered by forests, man in his folly continues with their destruction, unmindful of the fact that he is inadvertently destroying himself. 30. Consequent to the advent of agriculture, man has destroyed a significant portion of forests at his own peril. Forests serv....
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....er minorities and lowincome people bear a disproportionate burden of exposure to environmental harms and any resulting health effects. In the past ten to fifteen years, this issue has crystallized a grass-roots movement that combines civil rights issues with environmental issues, with a goal of achieving "environmental justice" or "environmental equity", which is understood to mean the fair distribution of environmental risks and protection from environmental harms." [ Schiffer, L.J. & Dowling, T.J. (1997), "Reflections on the Role of the Courts in Environmental Law", 27(2) Environmental Law 327-342.] 77. There is also a need to focus on the interconnection between principles of procedural justice and distributive justice. The concern is to create a system which is affirmative enough to balance the disproportionate wielding of power between polluters and affected people: "Environmental justice starts with distributive justice, or more accurately, distributive injustice. The rich and powerful derive the most benefit while suffering the least harm from environmentally harmful activities; conversely, the poor and minorities derive the least benefit but suffer the mos....
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....s bound by nature's law. Therefore, the need of the hour is to transform from an anthropocentric approach to ecocentric approach which will encompass a wider perspective in the interest of the environment. Dr. Susana Borras in her paper titled "New Transitions from Human Rights to the Environment to the Rights of Nature" published in Transnational Environmental Law, Volume 5, Issue 1, April 2016 has reflected on the rights of nature (p. 114), "A new approach is emerging, however: the recognition of the rights of nature, which implies a holistic approach to all life and all ecosystems. In recent years, a series of normative precedents have surfaced, which recognize that nature has certain rights as a legal subject and holder of rights. These precedents potentially contribute not merely a greater sensitivity to the environment, but a thorough reorientation about how to protect the Earth as the centre of life. From this perspective, known as 'biocentrism', nature is not an object of protection but a subject with fundamental rights, such as the rights to exist, to survive, and to persist and regenerate vital cycles. The implication of this recognition is that human be....
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....ciety as their significance has to be seen in the light of their effect on the Earth. Christopher D. Stone: Should Trees Have Standing? - Toward Legal Rights For Natural Objects, Southern California Law Review, 45 (1972) (pp. 464, 473, 474, 476), "It is not inevitable, nor is it wise, that natural objects should have no rights to seek redress on their own behalf. It is no answer to say that streams and forests cannot have standing because streams and forests cannot speak. Corporations cannot speak either; nor can states, estates, infants, incompetents, municipalities or universities... ...If the environment is not to get lost in the shuffle, we would do well, I think, to adopt the guardianship approach as an additional safeguard, conceptualizing major natural objects as holders of their own rights, raisable by the court-appointed guardian. ...There is also a good case to be made for taking into account harm to the environment-in its own right. As indicated above, the traditional way of deciding whether to issue injunctions in lawsuits affecting the environment, at least where communal property is involved, has been to strike some sort of balance regard....
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....tion of forests. 34. Professor Wahlen in her paper titled "Opportunities for making the invisible visible: Towards an improved understanding of the economic contributions of NTFPs", published in the Journal of Forest Policy and Economics, Volume 84, November 2017, has considered the implications on forest governance management and policy arguing that Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer an opportunity to increase attention on the non-cash contributions of forests and turn this invisible contribution into a visible one. These "invisible services" rendered by forests ought to be given due credit. Depletion and disappearance of forests would ultimately lead to a massive extinction of organisms. Appreciation of this fact shall come from the point of view of a species rather than through the prism of a State or a nation. Regulation of temperature and prevention of water depletion is the primary role of forests. Destroying forests would lead to the depletion and destruction of our life source. It would lead to extreme droughts, rainfall would become scarce and even if it pours, there would not be any means for its natural storage. The concept of forests acting as a major sink of....
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....ly, India's forest and tree cover is serving as a major mode of carbon mitigation for India and the world. Value of Mitigation Putting a conservative value of US$ 5 per tonne of CO2 locked in our forests, this huge sink of about 24,000 mt of CO2 is worth US$ 120b, or Rs 6,00,000 crores. Incremental carbon under scenario three will add a value of around US$ 1.2b, or Rs 6,000 crores every year to India's treasury of forest sink, assuming a value of US$ 7 per tonne." (emphasis supplied) A recent report of the Reserve Bank of India presents a very disturbing scenario. The report clearly suggests the enormous potential impact of climate change on the society, leading to serious job losses in every sector. Therefore, the adverse effect will be on the future of the nation as a whole, as against an identifiable group. "Report on Currency and Finance; Towards a Greener Cleaner India", published by the Reserve Bank of India, (2022-2023), (pp. 45, 47), "4. Macroeconomic Impact of Climate Change in India xxx xxx xxx II.32 India, along with countries such as Brazil and Mexico, face high risk of reduction in economic growth, if global w....
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.... that sustains him. And when his environment deteriorates rapidly, his civilisation declines..." APPROACH OF THE COURT 38. This Court has repeatedly reiterated the approach required to be adopted by the courts where the onus is on the violator to prove that there is no environmental degradation. There is a constitutional duty enjoined upon every court to protect and preserve the environment. Courts will have to apply the principle of parens patriae in light of the constitutional mandate enshrined in Articles 48A, 51A, 21, 14 and 19 of the Constitution of India, 1950. Therefore, the burden of proof lies on a developer or industrialist and also on the State in a given case to prove that there is no such degradation. 39. Not being an adversarial litigation, the court shall utilise all possible resources, including scientific inventions, in its endeavour to preserve the environment. While adopting an ecocentric approach, the concept of inter- related existence has to be kept in mind. A narrow or pedantic approach should be avoided. While considering the economic benefits, the invisible value and benefits provided by the forests shall also be factored into. There has to be an i....
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....logical or medical concern". That is the required standard of proof. The result would be that if insufficient evidence is presented by them to alleviate concern about the level of uncertainty, then the presumption should operate in favour of environmental protection. Such a presumption has been applied in Ashburton Acclimatisation Society v. Federated Farmers of New Zealand [(1988) 1 NZLR 78] . The required standard now is that the risk of harm to the environment or to human health is to be decided in public interest, according to a "reasonable persons" test. [See Charmian Barton: Precautionary Principle in Australia (Vol. 22) (1998) Harv. Env. L. Rev., p. 509 at p. 549.]" (emphasis supplied) Approach of the Court: High Degree of Judicial Scrutiny on Any Action of Government • Intellectuals Forum v. State of A.P., (2006) 3 SCC 549 "Public trust doctrine 76. The Supreme Court of California, in National Audubon Society v. Superior Court of Alpine Country [33 Cali 419] also known as Mono Lake case [33 Cali 419] summed up the substance of the doctrine. The Court said: "Thus the public trust is more than an affirmation of State power to use ....
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.... and to safeguard the forests; ii. Under Clause (g) of Article 51A of the Constitution, it is a fundamental duty of every citizen to protect and preserve the natural environment, including forests, rivers, lakes and wildlife etc.; iii. Article 21 of the Constitution confers a fundamental right on the individuals to live in a pollution-free environment. Forests are, in a sense, lungs which generate oxygen for the survival of human beings. The forests play a very important role in our ecosystem to prevent pollution. The presence of forests is necessary for enabling the citizens to enjoy their right to live in a pollution-free environment; iv. It is well settled that the Public Trust Doctrine is a part of our jurisprudence. Under the said doctrine, the State is a trustee of natural resources, such as sea shores, running waters, forests etc. The public at large is the beneficiary of these natural resources. The State being a trustee of natural resources is under a legal duty to protect the natural resources. The public trust doctrine is a tool for exerting long-established public rights over short-term public rights and private gains; v. Precautionar....
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....opment, thus, is intrinsically connected to the preservance of a dignified life. It is not limited to the idea of infrastructural development, rather, it entails human development as the basis of all development. The jurisprudence in environmental matters must acknowledge that there is immense interdependence between right to development and right to natural environment. In International Law and Sustainable Development, Arjun Sengupta in the chapter "Implementing the Right to Development" notes thus: "... Two rights are interdependent if the level of enjoyment of one is dependent on the level of enjoyment of the other..." vii. Even 'environmental rule of law' has a role to play. This Court in the case of Citizens for Green Doon v. Union of India and Ors. 2021 SCC OnLine SC 1243 has dealt with another important issue of lack of consistent and uniform standards for analysing the impact of development projects. This Court observed that the principle of sustainable development may create differing and arbitrary metrics depending on the nature of individual projects. Therefore, this Court advocated and accepted the need to apply and adopt the standard of 'environmental....
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....1. Environmental rule of law xxx xxx xxx "49. The environmental rule of law, at a certain level, is a facet of the concept of the rule of law. But it includes specific features that are unique to environmental governance, features which are sui generis. The environmental rule of law seeks to create essential tools - conceptual, procedural and institutional to bring structure to the discourse on environmental protection. It does so to enhance our understanding of environmental challenges - of how they have been shaped by humanity's interface with nature in the past, how they continue to be affected by its engagement with nature in the present and the prospects for the future, if we were not to radically alter the course of destruction which humanity's actions have charted. The environmental rule of law seeks to facilitate a multidisciplinary analysis of the nature and consequences of carbon footprints and in doing so it brings a shared understanding between science, regulatory decisions and policy perspectives in the field of environmental protection. It recognises that the "law" element in the environmental rule of law does not make the concept peculiarly ....
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....e, procedural and institutional elements. The tools of analysis go beyond legal concepts. The result of the framework is more than just the sum total of its parts. Together, the elements which it embodies aspire to safeguard the bounties of nature against existential threats. For it is founded on the universal recognition that the future of human existence depends on how we conserve, protect and regenerate the environment today. xxx xxx xxx 54. In an article in Georgetown Environmental Law Review (2020), Arnold Kreilhuber and Angela Kariuki explain the manner in which the environmental rule of law seeks to resolve this imbroglio [ Arnold Kreilhuber and Angela Kariuki, "Environmental Rule of Law in the Context of Sustainable Development", 32 Georgetown Environmental Law Review 591 (2020).] : "One of the main distinctions between environmental rule of law and other areas of law is the need to make decisions to protect human health and the environment in the face of uncertainty and data gaps. Instead of being paralyzed into inaction, careful documentation of the state of knowledge and uncertainties allows the regulated community, stakeholders, and other inst....
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....t is key to preserving the right to life as a constitutionally recognised value under Article 21 of the Constitution, proper structures for environmental decisionmaking find expression in the guarantee against arbitrary action and the affirmative duty of fair treatment under Article 14 of the Constitution. Sustainable development is premised not merely on the redressal of the failure of democratic institutions in the protection of the environment, but ensuring that such failures do not take place." xxx xxx xxx 58. The UNEP Report (supra) also goes on to note [ UNEP, "Environmental Rule of Law First Global Report" (January 2019), p. 213.] : "Courts and tribunals must be able to grant meaningful legal remedies in order to resolve disputes and enforce environmental laws. As shown in Figure 5.12, legal remedies are the actions, such as fines, jail time, and injunctions, that courts and tribunals are empowered to order. For environmental laws to have their desired effect and for there to be adequate incentives for compliance with environmental laws, the remedies must both redress the past environmental harm and deter future harm." 59. In its Global Ju....
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....r the Forest Department nor the Forest Settlement Officer was arrayed as a party to these proceedings before the revenue department. It is also seen that the order of the Revenue Authority and the Revisional Authority were passed much after the declaration under Section 15 of the A.P. Forest Act, vesting the lands in the State by giving them the status of a reserved forest. 43. On 07.07.1981, the Joint Collector, Warangal allowed the application of the Plaintiff. Realising that the said order will not give the Plaintiff benefit of any sort, he filed an application before the Government seeking denotification of the land declared as reserved forest', which was rightly dismissed on 01.09.1984. 44. A suit was filed by the Plaintiff on 23.04.1985 in OS No. 56 of 1985 on the file of I Additional Sub-Judge, Warangal seeking a declaration of title and permanent injunction. In the said suit the Defendant no. 1 was the District Collector representing the Revenue Department with the Defendant no. 2, Forest Officer representing the Forest Department. Quite surprisingly, neither the Forest Settlement Officer nor the State of Andhra Pradesh, Forest Department was made a party defendan....
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....er did not appear before the Committee and based upon a report submitted, it was held that the suit property is required to be excluded in favour of the plaintiff. This was done despite the fact that the District Collector, who was a party to the suit, took a specific stand, and in view of the judgment which attained finality, that the suit land is forest land, the District Collector has got no jurisdiction at all to deal with it in any manner especially in the light of Section 15 and 16 of the A.P. Forest Act. We do not wish to say anything more on this, though wisdom has dawned upon defendants again, as could be seen from the affidavit filed by the State before this Court reiterating the original stand. 50. The aforesaid decision was taken by the District Collector after the judgment of the First Appellate Court. It was accordingly marked as a court exhibit in the review. Thereafter, it was taken up for hearing and disposed of on 19.03.2021. The Learned Judge who delivered an elaborate judgment in the first appeal was transferred to Andhra Pradesh on establishment of the High Court at Amravati. The review came to be filed before another Learned Judge. The impugned order was pa....
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..... Forest Act, has got no application is correct, as there is no attempt to interdict the proceedings. As there is no apparent perversity, this Court need not interfere with the impugned order. DISCUSSION 54. We have already recorded the facts in detail. It is a classic case where the officials of the State who are expected to protect and preserve the forests in discharge of their public duties clearly abdicated their role. We are at a loss to understand as to how the High Court could interfere by placing reliance upon evidence produced after the decree, at the instance of a party which succeeded along with the contesting defendant, particularly in the light of the finding that the land is forest land which has become part of reserved forest. 55. There is a distinct lack of jurisdiction on two counts - one is with respect to an attempt made to circumvent the decree and, the second is in acting without jurisdiction. The land belongs to the Forest Department and therefore, Defendant No. 1 had absolutely no role in dealing with it in any manner. Proceeding under the A.P. Land Revenue Act, 1317 F. has got no relevancy or connection with a concluded proceeding under the A. P. Fo....