Orissa high court lens on delay in not following Supreme Court resolution in nearly 50-year-old forest lease dispute

Cuttack: More than 30 years since the Supreme Court directed the state to settle the forest lease dispute between two contractors, the Orissa high court has pulled up the state for not complying with the order, calling it a “gross human rights violation” and ordering immediate relief to the affected parties.The dispute dates back to the late 1970s, when R S Bhatia, a licensed forest contractor, defaulted on a lease in Karanjia division, which was then reallocated to another contractor, Udayanath Sahoo. Bhatia challenged the decision in court in 1977 and eventually regained the lease through a 1978 high court ruling.A prolonged legal tussle followed, culminating in a 1992 Supreme Court-negotiated settlement between the two contractors. As per the settlement, both the contractors were to be allowed to remove timber and firewood from the leased forest area and divide it equally among them and make payments accordingly.Despite the apex court order, the state failed to implement the terms, prompting contempt petitions and then an execution case filed in 1997. The govt later claimed that implementation was barred under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, but those arguments had been rejected by the top court in 1994.Slamming the state for “a slew of avoidable litigations,” Justice Dixit Krishna Shripad, in his Sept 8 order held that there was “absolutely no impediment, legal or factual” to implement the Supreme Court’s 1992 order.“Delayed justice is the most egregious form of human rights violation. As a concession to the shortness of human life, litigation longevity must be shortened,” Justice Shripad noted, as he directed the state to either supply the contracted quantity of timber logs to the decree holders through the Orissa Forest Development Corporation (OFDC), subject to the recovery of dues with 6% interest from 1997; or pay the present market value of the timber, adjusted against the outstanding dues and interest. The state has been given three months to comply with the order.In addition, the HC ordered the state to pay Rs 2 lakh as an exemplary cost to the decree holders, with liberty to recover the amount from erring officials responsible for the delay.