TRIBAL DEVELOPMENT Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this Public Interest Litigation, the Petitioner which is a NGO, claims that a large number of members of the Scheduled Tribes are uneducated and residing in dense forest areas. The contention of the petitioner is that these tribal persons are in possession of some Government land which has been in their use for a long time and they are entitled to reside in the same land and use the land in terms of Sec. 6 of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 ( for short 'the Act of 2006').

(2.) There is no manner of doubt that forest dwellers including Scheduled Tribes, who are living in these forests, are entitled to certain forest rights in terms of Sec. 6 of the Act of 2006. Sec. 6 of the Act of 2006, however, prescribes a procedure for vesting such forest rights. It reads as follows:-

(3.) Therefore, the Gram Sabha is the authority to initiate the process for determining the nature and extent of an individual and community forest rights in such forest lands. The Gram Sabha will have to pass a resolution either in favour or against the person claiming rights in the forest land. However, the Gram Sabha is not the decision making body. It is only a recommendatory body and the same has to be sent to the Sub-Divisional Level Committee which, after going through the recommendation of the Gram Sabha, shall dispose of the same.