A vacation bench of Justices AS Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan heard the case where a criminal contempt notice was issued against DDA Vice Chairman and his response was sought as to why trees were cut in Delhi ridge area without court permission. The bench was dealing with the issue of rampant deforestation in Delhi's Ridge Forest area in violation of previous orders of the Supreme Court.
The bench headed by Justice Oka questioned whether the enquiry committee it had appointed in previous order enquired into what transpired during Delhi LG's visit to the site before the trees were felled in that area.
The top court reiterated that as the chairman of DDA, Delhi LG is amenable to judicial review.
"It was accepted before us that Delhi LG visited the site. We want to know what transpired in that visit!" the bench said.
After going through the affidavits filed by the vice-chairman, the top court found that emails were exchanged between the Delhi LG who is also the chairperson of the DDA in this regard. The top court pulled up the DDA for not putting all details on record, especially with regards to who directed the felling of trees. The court sought clarification on the same and listed the matter for Wednesday.
"We direct the Vice Chairman to state before the Court about whether any official record is available regarding the site visit of the LG on 3rd Feb and on what transpired on the visit of the LG. We need a clear statment of facts from the VC, because if what is indicated in the emails is correct, then the felling of the trees was on the directions by the LG. We expect the DDA to come clean on this aspect," the bench said.
The court said such a brazen act on part of DDA cannot be brushed aside by the court and issued contempt notice to DDA officers.
"We propose to hold a detailed enquiry into the acts of the DDA which resulted in the destruction of several valuable trees and consequentially the destruction of the enviroment. Such brazen acts in the capital city cannot be lightly brushed aside by this Court. If authorities are not performing their statutory and constitutional duties, the court has to give a loud signal to all authorities that the environment cannot be damaged in such fashion." the bench said while dictating order.
The court also rapped DDA for using judicial officers as legal advisors and directed it to stop the practice immediately.
"We are pained to see that such valuable trees have been felled," the top court said while referring to the Forest Survey of India report.
In an earlier hearing the top court had said that the DDA should plant at least 100 new trees against each tree felled by it in the Delhi Ridge Forests area.
On May 16, the apex court issued a criminal contempt of court notice to the DDA Vice Chairman for filing evasive affidavits in court and suppressing facts in the matter of tree felling in Delhi ridge area. The court further directed the DDA to place on record the approval granted by Delhi LG and copy of application submitted to the LG who is also the DDA Chairperson.
The top court had issued notice to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) for violation of the Forest Act.
The bench also directed the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun to send a team to inspect the Delhi Ridge Forests area and road stretches around it to ascertain how many trees were cut and said it will direct the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to plant at least 100 new trees against each tree cut.
The apex court had also asked the FSI team to submit a preliminary report on the environmental damages done by June 20, so that compensatory afforestation can be done. The top court also implicated the Ridge management board and barred it from approving any diversion project without the top court's approval.
Case Background:
The court had earlier issued civil contempt notice to the DDA VC Subhasish Panda over felling of trees without court's permission. The court further found that the DDA also misled the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi who is also DDA chairperson to obtain his approval.
The bench observed that material fact was suppressed by DDA that felling of trees continued for 10 days despite court orders.
"It was fully aware that without permission of this court not a single tree could be touched. In complete violation of law and orders of this court, the work was started and completed. This shows that DDA has committed wilful breach of this court's directions.”, the court said.
The top court directed the DDA VC to personally address a letter to the Delhi LG stating that he suppressed documents while sending the proposal for tree felling to the LG. The court issued criminal contempt of court notice to the VC for suppression of facts in felling of trees.
“We hope LG takes the issue very seriously in his capacity as DDA Chairperson and official responsibility,” the bench said while emphasising the importance of the government's role in preventing deforestation. The court further said that it should not look like that only the court is concerned with preventing deforestation.
The court censured DDA for filing misleading affidavits and representing wrong facts in the court.
"I have been a judge in Constitutional courts for over 20 years now and I have never seen a body misrepresenting facts and filing wrong affidavits. There has to be some limit, never before seen." Justice Oka remarked.
In a previous hearing, the top court directed the DDA VC to file an affidavit on the trees felling exercise in the Delhi's Ridge Forest area. Following which, on May 16, the top court expressed great displeasure at the affidavit filed and called it extremely evasive and termed the apology in it as mere lip service.
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