New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said that brazen acts of tree felling in the national capital cannot be brushed aside and asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), whether illegal cutting of trees in Delhi's ridge forest was carried on the direction issued by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Vinai Kumar Saxena.
A bench comprising justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said that it wants a "clear" statement from DDA whether trees in the ridge area were cut on L-G’s orders without court’s permission. The bench expressed its willingness to issue directions for a massive tree plantation drive in the entire national capital territory and asked the DDA and Attorney General R Venkataramani to assist it in the matter.
The bench said it is keen on a detailed inquiry into the acts of the DDA, which resulted in destruction of several valuable trees and consequentially degradation of the environment. The bench was hearing a suo motu contempt case initiated against DDA vice chairman Subhashish Panda for the felling of trees in violation of court’s orders.
During the hearing, the apex court stressed that it is very concerned that trees were cut despite a clear direction that exercise of such nature cannot be carried out without court’s permission. The bench, after perusing the report of the inquiry committee constituted by the DDA to examine the whole episode, observed that certain email communications referred to a site visit made by the L-G in February 2024.
The bench noted that an officer, executive engineer, had purportedly sent emails to the contractor, but the officer denied the authorship of these emails. The bench noted that the emails contained a specific statement that L-G, who is the DDA chairman, visited the site in February 2024, and directed to clear the trees. Senior advocate Maninder Singh, who was representing the DDA VC, submitted that the L-G's visit was to another site and not the site in question.
"We direct the vice chairman to state before the court about whether any official record is available regarding the site visit of the Lieutenant Governor on February 3 and on what transpired on the visit of the L-G," said the bench.
The apex court stressed that it needs a clear statement of facts from the vice chairman, because if what is indicated in the emails is correct, then the felling of the trees was on the directions by the L-G. "We expect the DDA to come clean on this aspect," said the bench, while issuing contempt notices to the DDA officers concerned.
“If the authorities are not performing their statutory and constitutional duties of protecting the environment, the court has to give a clear and loud signal to all authorities that the environment cannot be damaged in such a fashion," the bench noted. The apex court has scheduled the matter for further hearing on June 26.
Earlier, the court had issued a notice of criminal contempt against DDA vice-chairman Panda for allowing large-scale felling of trees in the southern Ridge's Satbari area to construct a road from Chattarpur to South Asian University.
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