A two-member bench ordered the fund transfer at the request of the central government which had sought the release of these funds for use for the purposes originally intended.
The Supreme Court on Monday directed that all the funds worth around Rs 54,000 crore under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (Campa) be transferred to a new Authority created by the central government, setting the stage for its utilisation by both the central and state governments for its green initiatives.
The money collected by the top court by way of compensatory afforestation funds and NPV (net present value) of forests diverted for non-forest purposes such as industry or commercial purposes, has been lying with an ad hoc Campa Authority so far.
These are expected to be used to create forests which have been lost to industrialisation and development.
A two-member bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta ordered the fund transfer at the request of the central government which had sought the release of these funds for use for the purposes originally intended. Though most of these funds had been collected under the aegis of the top court, successive governments at the Centre have to tap into them.
The court was initially reluctant to release these funds without a mechanism in place to ensure that they were properly utilised but changed its mind after the central government brought in a law in 2016 taking care of its concerns.
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The funds will now be transferred from the ad hoc Campa created by the top court on July 10, 2009, to the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority.
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