‘DDA Should Plant 100 New Trees For Each Tree Felled’: SC Sends Criminal Contempt Notice To VC

The Supreme Court on Thursday said that the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) should plant at least 100 new trees against each tree felled by it in the Delhi Ridge Forests area. The court also issued a criminal contempt of court notice to the DDA Vice Chairman for filing evasive affidavits in court and suppressing facts. 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 also issued notice to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) for violation of the Forest Act.

The bench headed by Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan  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 directed the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to plant at least 100 new trees against each tree cut. 

The apex court further 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.

The bench was dealing with the issue of rampant deforestation in Delhi’s Ridge Forest area in violation of its previous orders of the Supreme Court. 

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.