HC strikes down West Bengal govt order again

After the new Singur Act, the State government has attracted yet another indictment. The Calcutta High Court has struck down a West Bengal government order which curtailed the administrative power of a senior official of Indian Forest Services.

 

The forest department had issued the notification on February 25 curtailing administrative powers of Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Mirza Azgar Sultan after his tussle with a senior official of the department. Sultan moved the court challenging the notification. Declaring the government order as illegal, the two-member Division Bench of the High Court, comprising Justice Pratap Roy and Harish Tandon, asked the state government to return all powers to Sultan.

 

Irked by Sultan's office memo the Forest Minister Hiten Burman curtailed vital powers of PCCF Sultan immediately and entrusted those to a newly created post PCCF (General) and appointed former PCCF Atanu Raha in his place. (see earlier story on TSI: http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/bengal-official-takes-on-minister-loses-responsibility/254/30626/) 

 

When reprimanded by Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, Burman reached Kolkata all the way from Jalpaiguri and apprised her about the development. Later he told media, “I told the chief minister that the PCCF was violating government service rules by giving television interviews and text-messaging to various media persons.”

 

Mirza Sultan also accused Burman of threatening him twice as he refused to budge on the issue of illegal saw and plywood mills and veneer industries. Regarding charges levelled by the Minister to Chief Minister, Sultan had said, "The forest minister must be unaware of the service rules since he hasn't specified which part of it has been violated by me.” He also reiterated, “We have to stop illegal cutting of trees and illegal operation of saw mills. Otherwise we cannot save the forests.”

 

However, forest department officials claimed that there was no wrong on the part of Sultan as his act was backed by the directive of the Supreme Court’s bench, comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice Arijit Pasayat, asking for immediate closure of unlicensed plywood, veneer industries and saw mills in the country.

 

The order clearly states that new licenses can only be issued after obtaining concurrence of the court. Apart from that, Sultan has only re-issued a notification (9878/PGLI/7R-2(47)/2011), issued earlier by the same Raha. A senior Forest department officer, on condition of anonymity, told TSI on February 27 this year, “Creation of such a post, bearing ‘PCCF- General’, without the sanction of Union Forest Ministry is totally illegal.”