New Delhi, April 8 The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday said there were no grounds to recall or modify its April 2 order staying the Assam government's order seeking the deployment of around 1,600 Assam Forest Protection Force (AFPF) personnel for the assembly polls in the northeastern state.
Assam goes to the polls on Thursday.
The NGT's eastern zonal bench in Kolkata had granted the stay on a plea filed by advocate Gaurav Bansal, claiming that by diverting the AFPF personnel from their primary duties of protection and conservation of biological resources for election and allied purposes, authorities have failed to discharge their statutory obligations under the Biological Diversity Act.
Following this, the state government sought vacation of the stay, arguing the petition had wrongly "stretched" the provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, making it applicable to manpower deployment.
On Tuesday, the green body rejected the state government's argument about the AFPF personnel not being "forest staff".
A bench of judicial member Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert member Ishwar Singh said, "No doubt the AFPF members do not fall within the definition of 'Forest Officers' under Section 2(f) of the AFPF Act, but their appointment rests with the Chief Conservator of Forests, who has to exercise that power in accordance with the rules made under the AFPF Act."
The tribunal said that in view of the mode of appointment, maintenance of discipline and disbursement of salary and grant of other financial benefits by the forest department, the force members were "forest staff".
So, the green body said, the personnel were within the ambit of the Supreme Court order of May 2024, which had restricted the deployment of forest staff for non-forestry tasks, including election duty.
It said that the AFPF Act did not permit deployment for election purposes, and so the state government's order offended the Act's provisions.
"Even though the conduct of election is the lifeline of the democratic setup and requisite deployment has to be made not only for election duties but also for maintenance of law and order but the members of the AFPF, which has been constituted for the better protection and security of the forests, forest produce and wildlife of Assam, cannot be deployed elsewhere…," the tribunal said.
It said their deployment for polls would defeat the purpose of constituting the force.
"Any precedent in the past for their deployment for some other purpose cannot justify such deployment now or even in the future. Such deployment cannot be made even on the ground of any number of members of the AFPF being retained in the battalion headquarters," the tribunal said.
It said that retaining a substantial number of force members in the headquarters raised a question on their proper management, as their maximum number should be deployed for better protection and security of the state's forests, forest produce and wildlife.
"The question of protecting biodiversity is integrally connected with the protection of forests, forest produce and wildlife, and the question of stretching the provisions of the Biodiversity Act to an unrelated matter does not arise, as deployment for the protection of forests will also be for the protection of biodiversity," the tribunal said.
Underlining that the state government's order violated provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, the AFPF Act and the May 2024 apex court verdict, the tribunal said, "We are of the considered view that the impugned order suffers from patent illegality."
"In view of the above, no ground for recall/modification of the interim order dated April 2 is made out, and the interim order dated shall continue to operate till the decision of the present original application," the tribunal added.
It said that though the government's order would expire after the polls were conducted on Wednesday, the proceedings would continue as there was the larger question of deployment of AFPF personnel for other purposes.
Granting the authorities concerned the opportunity to file responses within four weeks, the tribunal posted the matter on May 20 for further proceedings.