SC stays Madras HC order stalling press communique on Forest Amendment Bill

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed an order of the Madras High Court which had put on hold a press communique issued by the Centre inviting suggestions on the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023, in either English or Hindi.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Pankaj Mithal took note of the submission by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the Lok Sabha Secretariat shall proceed to publish the Tamil Version of the Bill by Monday so as to enable objections by the petitioner in the case.

“In view of the aforesaid, there shall be a stay of the order of the high court. Issue notice,” the bench said.

At the outset, Mehta submitted that the high court ought not to have interfered in the legislative process.

The high court had on May 24 ordered the interim stay of the press communique and all further proceedings while hearing a petition filed by advocate G. Theeran Thirumurugan.

“If the Amendment Bill or the press communique was not made available in vernacular languages other than English and Hindi, the object behind calling for suggestions from the public could be defeated,” the high court had said.

The petitioner had sought a direction to the Centre to upload a copy in Tamil of the Bill on the website and receive suggestions in vernacular languages, including Tamil.