KISAN Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IS a total ban on grant of licence required for grazing cattle in Government forest units permitted for grazing to Kathewadi graziers constitutional? In our view the answer to the above question has to be in the negative.

(2.) FIRST the small factual background against which the question falls for consideration. The petitioners are graziers owning herds of cows and calves from Kathewad region in the Gujarat State. They move all over India in search of fodder for their cattle, specially because of the conditions of famine prevailing in that area. They survive on sale of milk and manure from the cattle. They also settle down at fixed places preferably where cattle can be fed easily. Such graziers were granted grazing licences for some period earlier, but the respondents-State of Maharashtra and its Forest Officers-off late took a policy decision not to grant such licences to any Kathewadi grazier and totally excluded that class from consideration for grant of licence in future. The justification put forth is that some of them indulged in illegal grazing and created law and order problem.

(3.) INDIAN Forest Act, 1927 (the Act) regulates, inter alia, pasturing of cattle in the Government forests. Section 32 (i) and section 76 of the Act contains rule making power vested in the State Government, under which Grazing Rules for the Maharashtra State (the Rules) have been framed under Government Resolution No. MFP 1365/132211-Y dated 6th December 1968 supplemented by Government Resolution No. MFP-1371/237035- Z dated 3rd November 1973. Rule 44 of the 1973 resolution refers to the areas in respect of which and persons to whom grazing licences can be granted. It uses the terminology "cultivator family and others" as a category of persons to whom licences can be granted.