In a setback to the NDA government just before the Lok Sabha elections, the Supreme Court stayed the Centre's order to grant ownership rights to tribals, encroaching upon lakhs of hectares of forest land illegally in several states after 1993. The stay was granted by a three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Mr V.N. Khare, Mr Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat, while hearing a fresh application in a decade-old pending writ petition seeking protection to the forest cover.