Tarun Joshi & others vs State of Uttarakhand & others

Sudhanshu Dhulia, J. (Oral)

Since the petitioner no. 1 Sri Tarun Joshi is admittedly not a forest dweller, his name stands deleted. Now the petition stands titled as “Jagat Singh Mitari & others v. State of Uttarakhand & Others”.

Petitioners claim to be “other traditional forest dwellers”. “Other traditional forest dwellers” has been defined under Section 2 (o) of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, which reads as under:-

“2. Definitions. -In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-(o) “other traditional forest dweller” means any member or community who has for at least three generations prior to the 13th day of December, 2005 primarily resided in and who depend on the forest or forests land for bona fide livelihood needs.”

The case of the petitioners is that they reside within Gram Sabha Bilhari Chakarpur, Tehsil Khatima, District Udham Singh Nagar and they depend on the forest for their bona fide needs. This has not been stated with any clarity, at least not to the satisfaction of this Court, by the petitioners, who have not said as to what precisely is their dependence on the forest area. There is nothing on record here to suggest that petitioners are “other traditional forest dwellers”. They admittedly reside outside forest area. They, however, claim that for their sustenance they depend on forest, though this aspect has not been substantiated. Nevertheless, the petitioners claim that the Gram Sabha has already recommended their case to the Sub- Divisional Level Committee and the Sub-Divisional Level Committee has also referred their case to the District Level Committee. In the counter affidavit, this fact has been denied by the State saying that no such matter is pending before the Sub-Divisional Level Committee or District Level Committee.

Considering the scheme of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 and the Rules framed thereunder and in order to determine the rights, inter alia, of “other traditional forest dwellers” in a forest area, the recommendations have to be first sent by the concerned Gram Sabha to the Sub-Divisional Level Committee which after examining the matter will refer it to the District Level Committee. It must be stated here that under sub-section (7) of Section 6 of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 read with Rule 9, the State Government shall constitute a State Level Monitoring Committee and the ultimate responsibility of monitoring such cases lies with the State Level Monitoring Committee.

The writ petition stands disposed with the direction that the petitioners shall make a representation before the Chief Secretary, Government of Uttarakhand who shall thereafter refer the matter to the State Level Monitoring Committee for final decision in the matter. In case the petitioners have any rights, let the case of the petitioners be decided in accordance with law.

However, it is made clear that any remarks made by this Court as to the merits of the case are only for the purposes of deciding the present writ petition, and shall not be taken into consideration by the State Level Monitoring Committee while deciding the case of the petitioners.