The Supreme Court on Thursday has stayed its February 13 order directing 21 states to evict 11.8 lakh illegal forest dwellers whose claims over the land have been rejected by the authorities.
From northeast, Assam, Tripura, Manipur are included in that order.
The states, which have come under the scanner of the top court are – Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Manipur.
According to a report, a bench comprising of Justices Arun Mishra and Naveen Sinha directed the state governments to file affidavit giving details about the process adopted in rejecting the claims.
The Supreme Court had posted the matter for further hearing on July 10.
The top court had on Wednesday agreed to hear the Centre’s plea seeking withholding of its February 13, order asking 21 states to evict nearly 11.8 lakh forest dwellers.
The Centre had rushed to the top court for modification of the order saying the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 was a beneficial legislation and should be construed liberally to help extremely poor and illiterate people who are not well informed of their rights and procedure under the law.
After the hearing the bench had stayed the order.
The bench further directed the chief secretaries of the states to file affidavit giving details about the process adopted in rejecting the claims.