New Delhi, Feb 21: More then 10 lakh forest dwellers, mostly indigenous people like adivasis and tribals, will be evicted from their land as they have, in the eye of law, failed to establish their claims on forest lands under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, popularly known as Forest Rights Act. Congress and CPI-M, besides tribal rights activists, have attacked the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not properly defending the tribals in the court.
The Union government failed to present its lawyers in defence of the law on February 13, leading a three-judge bench of Arun Mishra, Navin Sinha and Indira Banerjee to pass orders giving states till July 27 to evict tribals whose claims had been rejected and submit a report on it to the Supreme Court . The written order was released on February 20.
The court said that the state governments would “ensure that where the rejection orders have been passed, eviction will be carried out on or before the next date of hearing. In case the eviction is not carried out, as aforesaid, the matter would be viewed seriously by this Court.” The next date of hearing is set for July 27 – the effective date by when states would have to evict tribals to comply with the court orders.
The total number of rejected claims from 16 states that have reported rejection rates so far to the apex court add up to 1,127,446 tribal and other forest-dwelling households shows an analysis of the court order. Several other states that have not provided details to court have been asked to do so. Once they follow suit these numbers are likely to swell.