Relevance : GS Paper II ( Polity & Governance )
The Supreme Court recently ordered the eviction of lakhs of people whose claims as forest dwellers have been rejected under Forest Rights Act.
Is this order of the court justified?
- Claims are being rejected on invalid grounds such as wrong consideration of land as ‘not forest land’
- The rejections are not being communicated to the claimants
- Claimants’ exercise of right to appeal is not being facilitated
- It is unclear whether the Supreme Court has the authority to order evictions of Scheduled Tribes from Scheduled Areas.
- This eviction goes against the constitutional apparatus that prescribes protection to Adivasi homelands.
Conclusion
The immediate result will be the forced eviction of over one million people. Â We, as citizens, have every reason to worry.
