Hon'ble Mrs. Manju Rani Chauhan,J.
Lawyers are on strike and therefore, no one is present.
The petitioners in the writ petition claim to be residents of Ranhaur Forest, Tehsil Duddhi District Sonebhadra and claim to be Baiga by caste and therefore, claim to be Scheduled Tribes Category. They are claiming protection of their lives and livelihood as forest dwellers under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). In respect of their grievances the petitioners are stated to have submitted an application before the District Magistrate, District Sonebhadra but it appears that no decision has been taken till date. It is also stated that a writ petition in the nature of PIL No.56003 of 2017 (Adivasi Vanvasi Maha Sabha, Chandauli Vs. Union of India and Others) was filed, which was disposed of by a Division Bench of this Court by order dated 11.10.2018, copy of which has been filed as Annexure-3 to the writ petition.
No useful purpose would be served by keeping this writ petition pending.
We therefore dispose of this writ petition by the following order:
It is open to the petitioners to make individual application under Section 6 of the Act for seeking recognition of their forest rights, within a period of six weeks from today. If such applications are made, the Gram Sabha/Authority shall consider the same and take a decision as expeditiously as possible and preferably within a period of 12 weeks therefrom.
It is made clear that the Court has not adjudicated the claim of the petitioners on merits.
Order Date :- 28.1.2019 N Tiwari