Supreme Court Declines the Centre's Plea: Great Nicobar Forest Rights Petitions to Be Heard by the Calcutta High Court
On 5 October 2026, the Supreme Court refused to entertain the Union government's challenge to a Calcutta High Court order. That order had held that Public Interest Litigations (PILs) about the Great Nicobar Island project are maintainable, that is, fit to be heard.
The PILs allege that the Forest Rights Act, 2006 was violated in getting the consent of forest-dwelling communities for diverting forest land for the project. They also question the reduction of buffer zones around the national parks on the island.
The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana noted that the matter is already pending in the High Court and is listed for hearing on 25 and 26 November 2026. It asked the High Court to hear all pending petitions on those dates.
The Attorney General argued that the project is of great national importance, that its environmental clearance had already been challenged before the National Green Tribunal, and that multiple proceedings should not be allowed. A Tribal Council, which joined the case, argued that a PIL is maintainable because the matter concerns Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).
The Calcutta High Court has jurisdiction over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and sits there through a circuit bench at Port Blair (now Sri Vijaya Puram). Its division bench had earlier rejected the government's objections on the petitioner's standing and on res judicata (the rule against deciding the same dispute twice).
Great Nicobar Island Development Project
The Great Nicobar Island Development Project is a large infrastructure plan for Great Nicobar, India's southernmost island in the Bay of Bengal. It is led by NITI Aayog and implemented by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDCO). It aims to use the island's position next to one of the world's busiest shipping routes to build a major port and trade hub, with strategic and defence benefits.
The Supreme Court did not rule on the project itself. It only left the forest rights challenge to the Calcutta High Court, so the question of whether consent for the project was legally obtained will now be heard there in November.
Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006
The Forest Rights Act, 2006 gives legal ownership and use rights over forest land and forest produce to Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have lived in and depended on forests for generations. Its full name is the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. It treats the Gram Sabha (the assembly of all adult voters of a village) as the body that starts the process of recognising these rights.
The PILs say the consent and the certificate of settled forest rights given for Great Nicobar did not follow the FRA process. That is exactly the question the High Court will now hear.
Writ Jurisdiction of High Courts (Article 226)
Article 226 of the Constitution gives every High Court the power to issue orders and directions, called writs, to any person or authority, including any government, within its territory. A High Court can use this power to protect fundamental rights and also "for any other purpose", which means to protect ordinary legal rights and to keep government action within the law. It is the main tool by which citizens in every state can quickly challenge illegal action by the state, without going all the way to the Supreme Court.
The Great Nicobar petitions are PILs under Article 226 in the Calcutta High Court, which has jurisdiction over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court held them maintainable, and the Supreme Court declined to interfere, so the High Court will now hear the merits of the forest rights challenge.
- Supreme Court order: 5 October 2026; bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana
- High Court hearing dates: 25 and 26 November 2026
- Calcutta High Court division bench: Justices Sujoy Paul and Partha Sarathi Sen (maintainability order)
- Project cost: about ₹72,000 crore; forest area about 130 sq km
- Components: transshipment port at Galathea Bay, airport, township, power plant
- Tribal Council NOC: given August 2022, withdrawn November 2022
- Gram Sabha meetings questioned: 12 August 2022; forest rights certificate: 18 August 2022
- FRA, 2006: Section 4(5) bars eviction before rights are recognised
- MoEF order on Gram Sabha consent for forest diversion: 30 July 2009
- Niyamgiri judgment: 18 April 2013