: Monday, July 06, 2026 10:52 AM
Jaipur bench sought response within four weeks from the top officials of the Forest Department, including the Chief Secretary, on the PIL filed by Varda Foundation.
Jaipur. The Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur, has taken a tough stand against the state government over the alleged plantation scam of ₹17.58 crore in the Rajgarh range of Alwar forest division during the year 2023-24. The court, hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Jaipur-based non-governmental organization (NGO) ‘Varda Foundation’, has issued show cause notices to top officials of the state government and the forest department. The Division Bench of the High Court passed this order on 1 July 2026, which was uploaded on the official website on 3 July 2026. The court has given the government four weeks to file its reply. The Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary (Forest and Environment), Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (HoFF) and Deputy Secretary of the Forest Department have been made respondents in this petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution. Advocate Aditya Kiran Mathur and his team argued in the court on behalf of Vijay Dutt Sharma, the authorized signatory of Varda Foundation.
According to the petition, soil conservation and plantation work was done in an area of about 650 hectares at 11 different sites in the Rajgarh range. The budget for this came from three different schemes.
Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).
Rajasthan Forestry and Biodiversity Development Project (RFBDP) funded by the sovereign loan of the French Development Agency (AFD).
State Plan.
It is alleged that senior officials of Alwar Forest Division, in collusion with each other, embezzled a large part of the public’s hard-earned money and this huge amount of foreign loan through fraud.
The modus operandi of fake signatures and manipulation of documents
The petition has made a sensational disclosure of the departmental modus operandi adopted to carry out this mega scam:
Machine work, names of laborers: All the work on the ground was done with heavy JCB machines, but expensive bills were passed by showing it in the records as human labor done by poor laborers.
Manipulation of Measurement Books (MB): Fake entries were made in government records and measurement books.
Fake bank withdrawals: Identical signatures of officials of seven village forest protection and management committees of the area were forged and illegal withdrawals of crores of rupees were made from their bank accounts.
The departmental internal assessment itself revealed the truth: This entire petition is based on an internal investigation and assessment report of the Forest Department itself. In fact, on June 4, 2024, the then Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) Jaipur, Rajiv Chaturvedi, had written a letter to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests regarding this disturbance. After this, a special evaluation team was formed between 28 June and 15 July 2024.
The report of this team revealed that: There was direct embezzlement, unproductive and unnecessary expenditure of ₹2.03 crore.
Illegal amount of more than ₹ 15.54 crore was withdrawn from the accounts of seven village forest protection committees between the year 2015-16 to 2024-25.
Thus, the total financial irregularity figure was estimated at ₹17.58 crore, copies of which have been submitted to the court.
Allegation of suppressing the case by changing the investigating officer
The petitioner alleged that after the corruption was exposed, some high ranking officers of the department were trying to save the culprits. According to the developments, in December 2024, the then PCCF Arijit Banerjee had appointed Rajiv Chaturvedi as the preliminary investigating officer of this case. Chaturvedi sought formal approval to register a case against the officials involved under Section 17-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 in February 2025.
But, this proposal was kept pending at the departmental level for months. Finally, in December 2025, the Deputy Secretary of the Forest Department gave instructions to take immediate action on this. But instead of taking action as per rules, on March 16, 2026, Acting PCCF Pawan Kumar Upadhyay issued a controversial order removing the original investigating officer Rajiv Chaturvedi and replacing him with a new officer, who had nothing to do with the prior background of the entire case. The petitioner has termed this as a deliberate attempt to divert the investigation and start again from scratch.
Demand for CBI investigation and recovery of embezzled amount.
The petition cites citizens’ right to a healthy environment (Article 21) and constitutional duties of environmental protection (Articles 48-A and 51-A(g)). Also, referring to the famous Supreme Court case ‘Lalita Kumari vs. Government of Uttar Pradesh’, it has been said that it is mandatory to file an FIR immediately on receiving information about a cognizable offence, but even after the expiry of the stipulated time limit of three months, the department has not registered any FIR till now.
Major reliefs sought by the petitioner from the court:
A timely investigation into this entire ₹17.58 crore scam and environmental damage should be conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under the supervision of the Honorable Court.
The role of senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers, other public servants and Forest Committee officials involved in embezzlement should be investigated.
Whoever is found guilty, the entire embezzled government money should be recovered from them.
Along with this, through an adjournment application, a request has also been made to stop the newly appointed investigating officer from conducting a fresh investigation.
The petitioner clarified that due to the government not taking any cognizance of the report given to the Chief Secretary on April 9, 2026 and the legal notice dated April 25, 2026, he had to take refuge in the judiciary in public interest. Now it remains to be seen what clarification the State Government presents before the Honorable High Court on this serious financial and environmental scam after four weeks.
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Web Title-Tree plantation scam in Alwar Forest Division: Rajasthan High Court takes a stern view
