Supreme Court: forest-dweller claims under the Forest Rights Act must follow Section 6's process

In ongoing proceedings over eviction and rehabilitation in Tamil Nadu's Agasthyamalai forest landscape and the Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve, the Supreme Court clarified how claims under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA) must be handled before encroachers are evicted. The State had earlier been directed to prepare a division-wise eviction plan; counsel for forest-dwelling communities argued that persons claiming rights as Forest Dwelling Scheduled Tribes or Other Traditional Forest Dwellers should not be evicted until their claims are determined. The Court held that such claims must be decided strictly through the three-tier mechanism under Section 6 of the FRA — beginning with the Gram Sabha, then the Sub-Divisional Level Committee, and finally the District Level Committee, whose decision is final — and not merely on the basis of present occupation, citing its earlier ruling in Orissa Mining Corporation Ltd. v. Ministry of Environment & Forests.

Persons who do not satisfy the Act's definitions under Sections 2(c) and 2(o) remain liable to removal. The Court also held that the critical habitat of a Tiger Reserve must be given primacy over encroachment claims, and that a claim of 'minor forest produce' rights over silk cotton under Section 3(1)(c) requires proof of traditional collection, not merely past cultivation that the State itself had promoted. The State Law Department was impleaded and tasked with monitoring pending encroachment cases before the District Courts.