Agencies / New Delhi
The Supreme Court today 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.
A bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Naveen Sinha directed the state governments to file affidavit giving details about the process adopted in rejecting the claims. The apex court posted the matter for further hearing on 10th July.
The top court had yesterday agreed to hear the Centre’s plea seeking withholding of its 13th February order asking 21 states to evict nearly 11.8 lakh forest dwellers whose claims were rejected.
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.