- (1.) Under Section 5-A of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 , the Central Government was required to constitute National Board for Wild Life within three months from the date of commencement of the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2002. The Prime Minister, as per Section 5-A, is the Chairperson of the National Board for Wild Life and the Minister in-charge of Forests and Wild Life is the Vice Chairperson. The date of the commencement of the Amendment Act is 1st April, 2003. Three months' time statutorily fixed expired on 1st July, 2003. It is unfortunate that for constitution of such a Board of which Prime Minister of the country is the Chairperson and where a statutory provision fixes a mandatory period, orders have to be passed directing the Central Government to comply with its obligation. Now, we are told that about a day or two earlier, the said Board has been constituted.
(2.) Under Section 5-B of the Act, the National Board for Wild Life is required to constitute a Standing Committee for the purpose of exercising such powers and perform such duties as may be delegated to the Committee by the National Board. Under sub-Section (3) of Section 5-B, the National Board is empowered to constitute committees, sub-committees or study groups, as may be necessary, from time to time in proper discharge of the functions assigned to it. Mr.A.D.N.Rao, learned counsel, states that the first meeting of the National Board has been fixed for 15th October, 2003 and, on instructions, further states the learned counsel, it is very difficult to advance the said date. The result is that as of now, there is neither a Standing Committee nor any other committee. Meanwhile, certain urgent applications are pending on which the expert views are necessary to be obtained.
(3.) One such application is I.A.No.30/2003 filed by the State of Uttaranchal PEY Jal Nigam. That application was filed about three months back. The prayer in the application is for grant of permission to transfer the forest land as stated in para 17(a) of the application. The application, inter alia, states that the State administration has decided that the arrangements for Ardh Kumbh Mela shall be completed by 15th November, 2003. The said Ardh Kumbh Mela is due to fall in the month of January, 2004. According to the application, the work after grant of permission is likely to take four months. Considering the urgency and the aforesaid state of affairs, we refer the above application for examination to the Central Empowered Committee. The Central Empowered Committee is requested to give its report as early as possible. We would consider the said application, on receipt of the report of the Central Empowered Committee, on 22nd September, 2003.;