IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. C.W.P. No. 19109 of 2007. Date of Decision: 7th January, 2009. Bal Kishan Mittal ....Petitioner through Mr. Atul Lakhanpal, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Virender Mittal, Advocate. Versus Financial Commissioner & Ors. Respondents through Mr. R.D.Sharma, Sr. DAG, Haryana. Mr. S.K.Sharma, Advocate. CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SURYA KANT. 1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? SURYA KANT, J. [ORAL) The petitioner seeks quashing of certain observations made by the Conservator of Forests, West Zone, Haryana at Hisar, in terms whereof the petitioner apprehends that his prayer for issuance of 'No Objection Certificate' for use of the forest land as a passage to the proposed Retail Outlet of Indo-Burma Petroleum Company Limited [for short 'IBP Co. Ltd.'] at village Samaspur, District Bhiwani, stands declined. The petitioner has been selected by the IBP Co. Ltd. for running a Retail Outlet of the Company at village Samaspur on a State Highway – 20 in District Bhiwani. For the said purpose, the petitioner is stated to have taken a piece of land on lease for a period of 30 years vide lease deed dated 4.4.2005. The petitioner requires the NOC from the Competent Authority in the Forest Department for ingress and outgress to the Petrol Pump site. An application for the said purpose, therefore, was submitted by the IBP Co. Ltd. to the Chief Conservator of Forests on 13.04.2005 [Annexure P-1]. Since the requisite NOC has not been granted despite a long correspondence, the petitioner has approached this Court. Notice of motion was issued and in response thereto, the State of Haryana and its Authorities in the Forest Department have filed their counter-affidavit. No reply, however, has been filed on behalf of Union of India. The stand taken by the Haryana State is that the Competent Authority to grant the NOC under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 is the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. Learned State Counsel further points out that the petitioner or IBP Co. Ltd. have not approached the said Competent Authority. In other words, the stand taken by the Forest Department, State of Haryana is that they are not the prescribed Competent Authority to issue the desired NOC. Having regard to the stand taken by the learned State Counsel and as prayed for by learned counsel for the parties, this writ petition is disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to approach the Government of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests for issuance of the requisite NOC and if such an application is moved by the petitioner within a period of two weeks, the Competent Authority in the said Ministry is directed to dispose of the same, in accordance with law, within a period of three months. Needless to say that if the Ministry of Environment and Forests requests any status report/ recommendations from the State Forest Department, respondents NO. 2 to 4 and 6 are directed to provide the said information to the Competent Authority within a period of one month from the date of receipt of such communication. It will be desirable that in case any adverse report is sent by the State Forest Department opposing the NOC, the Competent Authority in the Central Government affords an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner as well. Disposed of. January 07, 2009. ( SURYA KANT ) dinesh JUDGE