On Wednesday, the Supreme Court sought a personal affidavit from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) Chairperson and Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi, V.K. Saxena, regarding the alleged illegal felling of trees in the capital’s Ridge area. This step comes as part of ongoing contempt proceedings against the DDA and other authorities for purported violations of environmental preservation orders concerning the Ridge’s green cover.
A bench led by Chief Justice D.Y Chandrachud, along with Justice J.B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, directed the DDA chairperson to provide clarifications on several key points, including any discussions surrounding permissions to cut trees, the timeline of informing the LG about such permissions, remedial measures taken, and actions against erring officers. The Court emphasised that these explanations were necessary given its prior orders to preserve the ecological integrity of the Ridge.
The Contempt proceedings arise from allegations that the DDA, led by Vice-chairperson Subhasish Panda, permitted large-scale tree felling in the Ridge’s Satbari area for the construction of a road connecting Chattarpur to the South Asian University. A previous bench, comprising Justices Abhay S Okay and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, had issued a criminal contempt notice against Panda for filing a misleading affidavit related to the tree-felling activities. The Court expressed strong displeasure over the affidavit and noted the potential for conflicting judicial orders, as two different benches were addressing related contempt matters.
Earlier, a bench of Justice B.R Gavai, Justice P.K Misra and Justice K.V Viswanathan, had observed that separate contempt proceedings were ongoing before different benches concerning the felling of trees in Delhi’s Ridge, underscoring the need for judicial proprietary to avoid conflicting orders. The Apex Court directed the Delhi LG and DDA Chairperson to file a detailed affidavit addressing the Court’s concerns before the next hearing.
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