The Supreme Court on Wednesday resumed hearing the contempt case against the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) over illegal tree felling of nearly 1100 trees in the Delhi Ridge area without court permission for a road widening project. The top court has directed the DDA chairperson (Delhi LG VK Saxena) to file an affidavit by next hearing making full disclosure on the tree felling incident, where is the timber of the trees felled and what disciplinary action has been taken so far to fix accountabilty on the breach.
The top court today said that before they take any action they want the DDA chairperson to take action and file a compliance affidavit in the top court before next hearing. The court further said that the DDA Chairperson appears to be "misled" in the case.
The top court today grilled the counsels appearing for the DDA and the Delhi LG over the tree felling and said that the authority has a lot of explaining to do. The court noted that DDA started tree felling even before seeking permission from the court. The court said that application to fell a large number of trees started before the filing of the application for permission in court and the same was suppressed from this court.
Saying, that at this stage the material on record is ambiguous on certain aspects the top court sought clarity on:
(1) Whether during the site visit on Feb 3 there was any discussion or intimation with the chairperson of DDA of the permission required by Supreme Court for the tree felling.
(2) In the event of the answer to the one above being positive, what steps if were taken to ensure that the permission of this court was taken for tree felling.
(3) If the answer of the one above is negative, when was the Chairperson made aware of the permission required and the actual act of felling trees had commenced on 16 feb even before an application was moved before this court and eventually dimissed.
(4) What steps have been taken of the remediation and restoration of the ecological damage by the orders of this court earlier.
(5) What disciplinary action has been taken by the DDA chairperson against erring offcials to fix accountabilty and what happened to the timber of trees felled.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud questioned what happened to the timber of the 1100 trees felled in the Delhi ridge area. On August 28, the CJI DY Chandrachud transferred the contempt of court case initiated by the Supreme Court against the DDA over illegal tree felling in the Delhi Ridge area to his bench.
The matter pertains to a case where the apex court pulled up the DDA vice chairman, other officials and questioned Delhi LG VK Saxena's role in permitting deforestation in the ridge without court permission. Delhi LG is also the chairman of DDA.
Between June-July, the bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, heard the case and grilled the DDA Vice Chairman over the illegal tree felling.
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.
"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 statement 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.
On July 24, a separate division bench headed by Justice BR Gavai, took objection to Justice Oka's bench taking up the contempt petition.
Justice Gavai observed that his bench had already issued notice to the DDA on a contempt petition in another plea on the same tree felling before Justice Oka's bench heard the said plea.
Taking note of parallel proceedings in the issue of tree felling in Delhi ridge area, Justice Gavai referred the matter to the Chief Justice of India and opined that all matters pertaining to the Delhi ridge forest be dealt with by one single bench.