Civil Writ Petition No. 11540 of 2009 1 In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, at Chandigarh. Civil Writ Petition No. 11540 of 2009 Date of Decision: 20.11.2009 Chipper Association Jagadhri-Yamuna Nagar …Petitioner Versus State of Haryana and Others …Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA. Present: Mr. Chetan Mittal, Senior Advocate with Mr. Puneet Gupta, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Sunil Nehra, Assistant Advocate General, Haryana, for respondents No.1 to 4. None for respondents No.5 and 6. Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, J. (Oral) Chipper Association, Jagadhri, has filed present writ petition with a prayer that no licence to Chipper Units in Haryana should be granted contrary to the directions of the Central Empowered Committee (hereinafter referred to as “the Committee”). Further prayer made in the present writ petition is that in consonance with the mandate given by the Committee in Annexure P9 all unlicensed Chipper Units in the State of Haryana should not be allowed to operate. For making this prayer, counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance upon judgment of Hon'ble the Apex Court rendered in T.M. Godavarman Thirumalpad v. Union Civil Writ Petition No. 11540 of 2009 2 of India and Others (I.A. No. 566 In WP (C) 202 of 1995, decided on 30.10.2002), wherein various directions had been issued. One of the direction, which is required to be noticed in the present writ petition, read as under:- “3) No State or Union Territory shall permit any unlicensed saw mills, veneer, plywood industry to operate forthwith. No State Government or Union Territory will permit the opening of any saw mills, veneer or plywood industry without prior permission of the Central Empowered Committee. The Chief Secretary of each State will ensure strict compliance of this direction. There shall also be no relaxation of rules with regard to the grant of licence without previous concurrence of the Central Empowered Committee”. Forest Department, Government of Haryana, vide Annexure P12, on basis of telephonic guide-lines received from the Member Secretary of the Committee regarding Chippers, decided to grant licence to those Units which were established after 30.12.2002 subject to payment of licence fee of Rs.3,00,000/-. After issuance of notice, on behalf of respondents No.1 to 4, written statement has been filed by District Forest Officer, Forest Division (T), Yamuna Nagar, It has been stated therein as under:- “Chipper/Cutting Machine is used for manufacturing of Chip. The process is like that of cutting grass for animals. The waste of saw mill and peeler machine Civil Writ Petition No. 11540 of 2009 3 and of plywood industry is used for further processing the scrap waste into small particles and these chips are sold to paper mills for making pulp and there is no other use of these chips as this is a new raw material for paper industry. Beside the chips can be used as fuel in boiler”. It has been further submitted by counsel for the State that Chipper Units do not fall within the directions given by Hon'ble the Apex Court. I have heard counsel for the parties. From perusal of file, it is evident that correspondence between Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Haryana, and the Chief Conservator, Security-I, Haryana, Panchkula, is already there regarding grant of licence to Chipper Units in the State of Haryana which were established after 30.10.2002. Therefore, it cannot be said that Chipper Units are out of purview of the Committee. In these circumstances, the Chief Conservator of Forest may carry a survey regarding the Units established after 30.10.2002 as to who are entitled to grant of licence. After shortlisting the Units, which are to be granted licence, the list be sent to the Committee. In case during the pendency of the writ petition licence has been granted to the Chipper Units, approval for them be also sought from the Committee. At this stage, Mr. Sunil Nehra, Assistant Advocate General, Haryana, appearing for the State of Haryana, has submitted that Member Secretary of the Committee had already conveyed to the Haryana Forest Department that approval of the Committee is not Civil Writ Petition No. 11540 of 2009 4 required in each case and the Haryana Government may grant approval subject to such depositing Rs.3,00,000/- per Chipper Unit. Contents of this letter has been disputed by counsel for the petitioner. He states that the decision is not of the Committee. The communication is only given by a member, on telephone and immediately thereafter he demitted office. Taking this into consideration, it is directed that State of Haryana as observed earlier shall send list of all Chipper Units, to whom the licence has been granted, to the Committee, after approval in writing is granted, the Units will be allowed to continue. With the observations made above, the present writ petition is disposed of. (Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia) Judge November 20, 2009 “DK”