New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday took a dim view of the Haryana Assembly amending the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900 taking away the protection to the forest cover in Aravalli and exposing nearly 28,000 acres of land in Gurugram and Faridabad to private builders and land sharks.
Asking the Haryana government not to act on the amended provisions on the ground and describing it as a misadventure by the state government to overcome its judgment, the bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Deepak Gupta said: "We were apprehending that something of the sort would happen."
Observing "legislature is not supreme" and "you are not above law", Justice Mishra described as shocking that the state was trying to destroy the forest cover.
"It is shocking that you are trying to destroy the forest cover," Justice Mishra said as senior counsel Ranjit Kumar who is amicus curiae in the matter informed the court that the Haryana Assembly has amended the PLPA, 1900, taking away the protection to the forest cover in the Aravalli ranges in the state.
Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2019 was passed by the Haryana Assembly on February 27, amending the PLPA, 1900.