The Supreme Court on Monday put a stay on a Uttarakhand High Court's order directing the state government to reinstate senior Indian Forest Service officer Rajiv Bhartari as the head of forest force (HoFF). A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Vikram Nath said there shall be stay of operation of the impugned order of the high court dated April 3, 2023. The top court was hearing a plea by former HoFF Vinod Kumar seeking a stay on the high court's order. The apex court bench also issued notices to the respondents giving them four weeks to reply. Bhartari, who is due to retire this month, had resumed charge as the HoFF on April 4, just a day after the high court's order set the state government a narrow deadline of less than 24 hours for his reinstatement.
However, Bhartari was kept waiting at the state forest department headquarters here for several hours to take charge under one technical excuse or the other. Immediately after taking over, Bhartari issued transfer orders of a large number of forest department employees. However, his operational powers were virtually seized as transfer orders issued by him was revoked and he was restricted from taking any policy decisions without the approval of the state government. Bhartari was removed from the post in November 2021 as part of a major reshuffle in the Forest Department following allegations of large-scale felling of trees and construction in the Pakhro and Morghatti forest divisions in the buffer zone of Corbett.
He had been made chairman of Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board after being removed as the HoFF. Bhartari had moved the Central Administrative Tribunal and the Uttarakhand High Court to challenge his removal alleging there were political reasons behind it. Both the CAT and the high court issued orders in favour of Bhartari leading to his reinstatement.
