'Stinging rebuke': Congress hails SC order on Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act

Supreme Court directs States to form expert committees for forest land records, overturning Modi government's conservation law amendments.

The Congress on Thursday (March 6, 2025) hailed the Supreme Court order passed while hearing pleas against the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 and said it was a "stinging rebuke" to the Modi government's systematic efforts to dilute the institutions as well as regulatory systems for ecological conservation in the country.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (March 4, 2025) directed all the States and Union Territories to constitute within a month expert committees for preparing a consolidated record of lands, including forest-like areas, unclassed and community forest lands.

A Bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Augustine George Masih said the expert committee shall complete within six months the exercise as required under Rule 16 (1) of the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Rules, 2023.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023, was among the most draconian laws introduced by the Union government. Ever since it was introduced and bulldozed through Parliament, the Congress and I have taken a consistent stand against this law."

The Supreme Court on March 4 upheld the landmark Supreme Court judgment in T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad versus Union of India in December 1996, which ruled that the definition of forests would be understood by its "broad and all-encompassing" dictionary meaning, he said.

"It effectively overturns one of the most deleterious provisions introduced by the Modi Government's amendment to the Forest Act in 2023, which restricts the definition of 'forest' to the categories of notified forests and areas recorded in government records as forests on or after October 25, 1980," Mr. Ramesh said.

The Modi government's amendments would have attempted to limit the total coverage of forests in the country to about 7.13 lakh sq km, excluding an additional 1.97 lakh sq km that would be included under forests by the dictionary definition of the word, he said.