The Calcutta High Court’s Divisional Bench at Port Blair has agreed to hear three Public Interest Litigations alleging violations in forest rights laws when granting the Great Nicobar Island megaproject clearance.
The Court rejected the government’s plea to dismiss the PILs since the petitioner, former IFS officer Meena Gupta, lived in Telangana not the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Apart from arguing that Gupta had “no locus standi” in the matter, the Union government also said there was no need to re-visit the case as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had already cleared the project three months earlier.
However, the Calcutta Court said it was “crystal clear” that the petition in the NGT — which challenged the Project’s environmental clearance — was completely different from the present PILs. Gupta’s PILs concern the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in gram sabhas that are likely to be affected by the project, as well as the reduction in buffer zones around national parks.
“Merely because…the word ‘environment’ is mentioned, it does not make the present two petitions similar to the first one,” the court said in its order. The matter will be heard next on June 23.
The FRA law recognises the historical rights that forest dwellers and scheduled tribes have over forest resources. While the government maintains that FRA procedures were duly followed, media reports covering the ongoing legal proceedings have reported that quorum under the law was not met. Gupta’s PIL also argues that the Shompen and Nicobarese — the two tribes occupying the Island — are outside the gram sabha system, and seeking permissions via the Tribal Council would have been more appropriate.
The matter of tribal consent for the project has been disputed since 2022, when the Tribal Council of Great and Little Nicobar withdrew its consent for the project. In January this year, tribal leaders alleged pressure from the administration to sign certificates surrendering their ancestral land.
Banner image: Neil Island in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. Image by Vishal Jadav via Pexels.
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