THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The governor signed the personal forest reservation bill passed by the legislature last April. The bill, which amended the Personal Forests Reservation and Touchdown Act, 1971, to provide relief to small and marginal farmers holding up to fifty cents of private forest land, was shelved without signing on the grounds that it required detailed scrutiny. Legal Adviser Gopakumaran Nair informed the Governor that the bill is aimed at the welfare of the people and not to override the Supreme Court order. The advice given by the Advocate General to the government that the Bill is legal was also brought to the Raj Bhavan. Following this, the Governor signed this bill.

The proposal in the bill is to consider the possession documents submitted by the farmers as admissible evidence and allot the land ownership rights. Earlier, the forest department had objected to the concession to the farmers and the proof. The governor has sought legal advice considering that the amendment bill is to override the Supreme Court order of 2019 that the title deed is an authentic document in the case of forest land as well. However, the government is of the opinion that there is an error in determining the ownership of private forests based on land titles only and 20,000 hectares of dense private forest land will be lost and the amendment is to protect it. The amendment bill was passed only after passing the ordinance 7 times. The lawyers gave legal advice to sign the bill citing the fact that the Governor had signed all the ordinances. The governor again proposed to postpone the bills including the controversial Lokayukta Act amendment.