India, Oct. 24 -- The Bombay High Court has constituted a high-powered committee to oversee the long-delayed rehabilitation of encroachers living outside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), observing that the state government had failed to comply with its directions issued over nearly three decades.

A bench of chief justices Shree Chandrashekhar and Gautam A Ankhad passed the order on October 16 while hearing a contempt petition filed by Samyak Janhit Seva Sanstha against the Union of India. The petition alleged that despite multiple court orders, the authorities had not taken adequate steps to protect and preserve the 104-square-kilometre park, which spans parts of Mumbai and Thane.

The court noted that the first orders for protect...