The Indian Express: New Delhi: Friday, August 24, 2018.
On August 20,
a Supreme Court bench said it was “surprised” to learn that Punjab had spent Rs
86 lakh, out of funds meant for compensatory afforestation, to pay lawyers and
asked the Centre to verify if “misuse” of funds had taken place.
Present in
the court was one of the recipients of these funds advocate Annam D N Rao, the
apex court’s amicus curiae who, ironically, has advised the court on how these
funds should be used.
He’s been
playing that role since 2008 in the Godavarman case under which matters related
to the country’s forest policy, including compensatory afforestation, are taken
up. An amicus curiae literally, a friend of the court is chosen to assist the
court with impartial legal advice.
Between July
2016 and May 2017, advocate Rao when he was the SC amicus curiae represented
the Punjab forest department before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to defend
the state’s decision to cut down trees. In May 2016, the NGT had barred felling
of trees in the state without its permission. In 2016, Rao also appeared before
the Supreme Court in a contempt case, once again defending the Punjab forest
department.
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| Punjab receipt that shows payment to Annam D N Rao. |
Records
reviewed by The Indian Express show that Rao billed Punjab at least Rs 53.3
lakh for his legal services and the payment was made from the state CAMPA
account funds under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning
Authority.
In 17
instructions sent to a Chandigarh branch of the State Bank of India between
July 2016 and May 2017, the office of Punjab’s principal chief conservator of
forest sought transfer of Rs 47.97 lakh (excluding 10% TDS of Rs 5,33,000) from
the state’s CAMPA account to Rao’s account in the Supreme Court branch of the
UCO Bank.
The payments
were made against 45 invoices – three marked SC and 42 NGT raised by Rao and
all 17 payment instructions were copied to his Supreme Court address.
Asked about
these payments, Rao told The Indian Express: “I had appeared for the government
of Punjab before the NGT and the Supreme Court of India. I am not aware as to whether
the fees were paid from the CAMPA funds. I was concerned with only sending my
memos.”
Told that all
payment instructions copied to him by the state over nine months carried funds
transfer details from the Punjab CAMPA account, Rao said: “I don’t know. I
haven’t seen or received any.”
On August 20,
Rao was assisting the bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur when Justice Deepak
Gupta flagged reports on the alleged misuse of Punjab CAMPA funds based on
documents obtained under the RTI Act by Dr Amandeep Aggarwal who had moved the
NGT in 2016 against Punjab’s decision to cut thousands of trees for road
projects. Rao was fighting this case for the Punjab forest department.
Asked if he
had told the bench about his personal involvement in the matter, Rao told The
Indian Express: “I was at the court when the CAMPA matter was taken up. That
time itself I informed the Court that I had appeared for the Punjab government
in a couple of cases. I have to verify where the fees had come from. It is for
the Punjab government to explain from where the payment of fees was made and
why.”
When
contacted, Punjab’s principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) Jitender
Sharma said: “I can’t comment on individual cases. This happened before my
tenure and we have already provided the details to the Union Ministry of
Environment in the past. In view of the SC’s instruction, we will do what the
ministry requires us to.”
Since the
late-1990s, funds for compensatory afforestation are collected from developers
in lieu of forest land diverted for projects. In 2002, the Supreme Court sought
a common Compensatory Afforestation Fund. Due to the delay in forming the
Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), the
apex court in 2006 decided that an ad hoc CAMPA would centrally pool such funds
collected by the states.
In the
absence of a permanent institutional mechanism for utilisation of funds, huge
unspent amounts continued to accumulate in the ad hoc CAMPA. In 2016,
Parliament passed the Compensatory Afforestation Funds Act but the rules were
notified only earlier this month.
In fact, it
was amicus curiae Rao who, in December 2017, asked the apex court to restrain
the government from transferring anything out of the Rs 50,488 crore corpus
until rules were drafted under the CAMPA Act. On several occasions this year,
the apex court has pulled up the Centre and states such as Odissa for diverting
CAMPA funds for building roads, schools.
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