Himachal HC warns officials of dismissal from service for ignoring encroachment on govt or forest land

SHIMLA: Taking serious note of numerous incidents of encroachment on government as well as forest land across the hill state, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh has made it clear that officials indulging in dereliction of duty shall have to even face departmental proceedings for dismissal from service besides contempt proceedings.

“In case of dereliction of duty, field staff/concerned higher authority, as the case may be, shall be liable to face, apart from contempt proceedings, the criminal as well as departmental proceedings after immediate suspension on finding unreported/overlooked encroachment/re-encroachment on the government/forest land. Departmental proceedings, in such a case, shall be initiated for removal/dismissal from service,” underlined the division bench comprising Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Bipin Chander Negi.

Making it clear that the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities will not be tolerated at any cost, the division bench directed chief secretary Prabodh Saxena to circulate appropriate instructions pertaining to removal of encroachments to all the concerned officials.

The court also emphasised that the concerned field official shall ensure steps to protect the government or forest land from any type of encroachment. In case the field staff detects encroachment on government land, he or she shall report it to the next higher authority, who in turn shall ensure taking of immediate action for removal of such encroachment, stressed the court.

The division bench issued these directions during the resumed hearing of a case in which the court had earlier directed the forest department to remove the encroachments made by one Lot Ram on the forest land in village Muhal Niyalang of tehsil Manali in Kullu district.

The Kullu divisional forest officer(DFO) filed the compliance report before the court on Tuesday submitting that the encroachments from the forest land have been removed. At the same time, the division bench also warned that if the affidavit placed on record along with documents is found to be false, then appropriate legal action shall be initiated against the erring official. Petitioner Lot Ram shall not be allowed to regain the unauthorized possession on any portion of government or forest land, asserted the division bench.

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