Supreme Court's decision on Vedanta's Niyamgiri mining to hit government plans

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court's decision to let gram sabhas decide the fate of Vedanta's Niyamgiri mining project will make it difficult for the government to divert forest land for industry without the consent of tribals and local population.

The apex court's ruling on Thursday puts gram sabhas or village assemblies virtually at par with statutory and regulatory bodies, and gives a broader prism of rights to indigenous communities by defining the Forest Rights Act as more than just heritable property rights.

This will make it difficult for the government to move ahead with its plans to limit the say of gram sabhas in diversion of forestland for industrial use. In an effort to speed up industrial projects, a panel headed by the Prime Minister's Office in December last year had recommended that the rights of gram sabhas under the Forest Rights Act, making their prior consent mandatory, should be watered down to operate only in cases of exception.

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday directed the village councils of Rayagada and Kalahandi to take a decision within three months on whether the project can go ahead after considering any claims of cultural, religious, community and individual rights that the forest dwellers of the region may have.

The ruling linked the constitutional provision for the protection of Scheduled Tribes as enshrined in Article 224 with protection of religious rights under Articles 25 and 26 and the Forest Rights Act. It views these three components as part of a set of protections accorded to the tribal and forest dwelling population.

The bench's reading of the purpose of the Forest Rights Act, and its scope will have a major impact on recent attempts to re-interpret the Act to simplify norms for industry, mining and other development projects.

"The Legislature also has addressed the long-standing and genuinely felt need of granting a secure and inalienable right to those communities whose right to life depends on right to forests and thereby strengthening the entire conservation regime by giving a permanent stake to the STs dwelling in the forests for generations in symbiotic relationship with the entire ecosystem," the ruling said.

It said the Forest Rights Act is not just about heritable land rights. The legislative intent of the Act is to "protect custom, usage, forms, practices, and ceremonies, which are appropriate to the traditional practices of forest dwellers".

Dilution of the Forest Rights Act is a politically fraught issue with the Congress leadership and the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council firmly in favour of protecting the rights of the tribal population. However, sections of the government have been pushing for a less than strict adherence to the forest rights law, which they see as inhibiting industrial growth. The need to ramp up economic growth and pressure from the PMO led to tribal affairs minister V Kishore Chandra Deo acquiescing to the proposed dilution.