The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed its displeasure over the Centre for not abiding by its March 31 deadline to implement its direction to appoint a national regulator to oversee the implementation of the forest policy.
A Forest Bench headed by Justice A K Patnaik was visibly upset when Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran said that the Centre needed more time to appoint the national regulator in view of the upcoming general elections.
The Centre’s response came after the Bench specifically asked about it, and in a lighter vein, said the Congress party’s manifesto released on Wednesday also mentioned the national regulator for implementation of the forest policy.
The Solicitor General said the deadline could not be adhered to as certain modalities were yet to be completed and it would take some more time because of the general elections.