The first boards appeared last week; then more did. All say the same thing: “This property, 430 acres of land at village Mangar has been attached by Benami Prohibition Unit, Chandigarh of Income Tax Department.”The boards have given environmentalists hope that at least 430 acres of what once used to be village commons will be recognised as “deemed forest” and preserved for posterity.
After all, this is no ordinary land.
Mangar spread over 4262 acres (of which 3810 acres is hill area) is among the most biodiversity rich areas of the Aravallis in the National Capital Region (NCR). Within Mangar village, Mangar Bani (677.12 acres) is NCR’s most sacred grove, and possibly the only patch of primary forest in the region. It is also home to around 240 species of birds and 15 species of mammals including leopards and hyenas. Many experts believe the integrity of the Aravallis is intrinsic to the well-being of around 64 million people who live in NCR.
Though Mangar meets all criteria for a forest,it has still not been classified as such by the Haryana government. The Supreme Court’s December 12, 1996 verdict in TN Godavarman Thirumulpad vs. Union of India & Others case directed that “forests” would not only include those understood in the dictionary sense, but also any area recorded as forest in government records irrespective of the ownership. HT reported on October 3, 2023 that the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 will benefit real estate companies that own land in what was to be declared “deemed forest” in Haryana’s Aravallis. One of the contentious provisions of the new law is that it exempts unrecorded deemed forests from the modified law on forest conservation and hence leaves areas such as Mangar Bani vulnerable.
Though the notice boards by IT department do not mention the companies involved in benami (shell company- or proxy) transactions, jamabandi papers and IT department orders perused by Hindustan Times point to Kenwood Mercantile Private Limited and Goodfaith Builders Private Limited .
One document, from the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, Benami Prohibition Unit, dated December 31, 2019 states: “Whereas information was received by the undersigned, after indepth perusal of which a prima-facie satisfaction was arrived at to hold and believe, that the shareholdings of the companies Kenwood Mercantile Private Limited and Goodfaith Builders Private Limited and thereby the rights over the 430 acres of land at Village Mangar, Faridabad owned by these two Companies are Benami Properties.”
That document also points to the beneficial owners as M3M India Holdings and six individuals. M3M did not respond to queries from HT.
A ministry of finance order dated March 29, 2022, also perused by HT, confirms that these are benami properties that are being attached. However, boards have come up in Mangar demarcating the area only last week. The matter is now in the Punjab Haryana High Court.
The revenue record for Mangar from 1963-64 shows that the area is gair mumkin pahar (uncultivable land) and recorded as panchayat deh or owned by panchayat. HT’s analysis of jamabandi papers in 2023 had revealed that large parts of land in Mangar and Mangar Bani are owned by companies like M3M, Ireo and the Patanjali group.
Around 1973-74, through a mutation (no 155), around 3809.63 acres of land here was mutated from panchayat deh to shamlat deh and further sub-divided for private sale. The mutation was sanctioned on the basis of an order of a sub-judge in Ballabhgarh dated March 14, 1973, according to Chetan Agrawal, a Gurugram based forest analyst.
“Some villagers from Mangar moved the local court to get a judgement in their favour to privatise the common land. That was the beginning of how land started to be sold to private developers in Mangar. Thereafter, several other villages near Mangar also moved court to get an order to privatise. Around 1985-86, the consolidation proceedings were misused to illegally partition the panchayat/shamlat hill area of Mangar,” added Agarwal.
Agarwal wrote to Deputy Commissioner, Faridabad on July 12, 2022 asking for a cancellation of Mutation No. 155 in Mangar village and restoration of ownership and control of Mangar Bani sacred grove and other gair mum kin pahar shamlat common lands to the panchayat.
The Supreme Court in a judgement dated April, 7, 2022 in Civil Appeal No. 6990 of 2014 State of Haryana v. Jai Singh citing earlier judgements held that shamlat land is to be vested with the Panchayat.. In an earlier judgement dated January 28, 2011 in Jagpal Singh v. State of Punjab, {2011) also, the SC had held that all common lands including shamlat lands must be restored to the Gram Panchayats. A PIL has also been filed in the High Court in 2022 by retired Lt Col Oberoi to implement these judgements in Mangar and to restore the lands to the panchayats.
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“I am happy that the IT department has finally put up these boards. They have come up only now but these cases on benami transactions are years old. This will send a message to more real estate companies who bought land here through dubious transactions. It is unfortunate but villagers will always want economic benefit and possibly do not understand the value of commons. This is a paradise for birds, there are several wetlands here and all of Mangar acts as a groundwater recharge site for entire NCR,” said Sunil Harsana, conservationist and resident of Mangar village.
“This attachment of the forests of Mangar Bani provides a wakeup call to both citizens and decision makers on the murky nature of real estate holdings in the Aravalli forests, with hidden benami owners, and fraudulent privatisation of common lands. It exposes the kinds of interests behind the regulatory capture of forest and Aravalli policy-making in the state of Haryana – and why issues like the guidelines for identifying deemed forests as per dictionary meaning, are being stalled. The need of the hour is to conserve the Aravallis common land forests for their regional environmental benefits for the entire NCR, and firmly kept off limits for real estate,” said Agarwal.
(The reporter is a recipient of Promise of Commons Media Fellowship, on the significance of Commons and its community stewardship)