A Parliamentary panel has expressed concern over massive rejection of title deed claims of forest dwellers by the State Governments. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment tabled its report on ‘Implementation of Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006’ in both Houses of Parliament after reviewing the Government rules for allocation of title deeds to forest dwellers. According to the report, “Out of a total number of 28, 49,000 claims received from 17 States, as many as 12,67,928 claims have been rejected after initial verification and scrutiny”. The report further added that the concerned Ministry did not have any information on the level (whether it was the Gram Sabha, sub-division or district) at which most of these claims were rejected. The Parliamentary panel has asked the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry to review these cases based on their merit. The Committee expressing its apprehensions stated, “Large-scale rejections might have occurred due to procedural reasons where genuine claims might have been rejected on grounds of not fulfilling the procedure such as non-filling of claims forms properly and non-furnishing of relevant documents.”