Mumbai: In a setback to the state forest department, the Bombay High Court has upheld a 2017 order of the Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal (MRT) which had refused to declare over 193 acres of land in Thane’s Manpada a private forest.
Bringing a 50-year-old land dispute to a close, a division bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Ashwin Bhobe on February 20 said that while the forest department did not object to the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) acquiring about 104 acres of the disputed land for public purposes, it raised objections to the grant of compensation – Development Rights Certificate (DRC) or Transferable Development Rights (TDR) – to the land owner, despite a high court direction to the contrary.
“We are in agreement that the… grievance and contentions of the land owner need consideration and we record that the TMC cannot take a summersault to deprive the company of the compensation in the form of DRC,” the judges said.
While the dispute hinged on a notice issued on August 29, 1975, purportedly for acquisition of the 193 acres under Maharashtra Private Forests (Acquisition) Act (MPFA), the court held that the notice was signed by a ‘forest guard’ and not an authorised official. It also found fault in the way the notice was served to another company and not the owner of the land, D Dahyabhai and Company Pvt. Ltd. (DDCPL).
The company’s counsel Cherag Balsara told the court that the forest department had ignored the fact that a substantial portion of the land was used for paddy cultivation, orchards, and the balance was utilised for wells, industries, slums, structures, godowns, and a stone quarry. It could therefore not qualify as a private forest under the MPFA.
The state forest department had urged the court to set aside the order of the MRT.
“Manpada Thane is a highly sought after locality for residential and commercial construction activity. The pristine forest in this area will be completely destroyed by construction activity. This will be irreversible with long-term adverse effects on the environment and health” the state submitted. If the MRT’s order was struck down, the forest would be in the care of the forest department’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park Division, the state said.
The judges, however, said that while the land was acquired by the TMC in 2019 under its development plan (DP), the forest department neither challenged the Thane DP nor the land acquisition. It “woke up from deep slumber” only after acquisition of ‘Park Reservation No. 4’, and objected to the grant of DRC to DDCPL, the court noted.
The TMC had, in 2020, written to the forest department stating it would maintain the natural greenery in the area reserved for a park and the forest department could take over the land if it made such a request.
The judges said: “…these two authorities will have to sort out this issue. Nevertheless, this deadlock cannot defer the issuance of DRC to the land owner…”. Refusing the DRC would be “unjust and unfair and would impinge the constitutional rights” of the land owner, the court said.