The Supreme Court today issued a criminal contempt notice to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) Vice Chairman in the matter concerning the rampant felling of trees in Delhi Ridge Forest area in violation of its previous orders in M.C. Mehta v. Union of India & Ors.
Referring to the DDA Vice Chairman, the top court said that such conduct and suppression amounts to interference with due course of court proceedings and administration of justice. It added that the court has already issued a show cause notice for civil contempt. Subsequently, it issued a notice of criminal contempt.
The bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan during the last date of hearing indicated to issue the criminal contempt notice to the Vice Chairman and passed a detailed judgment expressing displeasure about the manner in which the entire exercise of tree cutting was done in Delhi Ridge Area without permission of the Court.
Earlier, the court asked the DDA Vice Chairman Subhasish Panda to submit an affidavit stating that he would restore the entire area where the trees were felt.
During the hearing today, after perusing the affidavit submitted by Panda, the court was not satisfied with the averments made in the affidavit and termed the entire exercise as criminal contempt of court.
The court noted that the cutting down of trees continued for 10 days, and trees were felled and destroyed. It pulled up the DDA for suppressing the material fact, adding that the authority was fully aware that without permission of this court not a single tree could be touched. It further observed that the DDA in complete violation of law and orders of the court, started and completed the work. This shows that DDA has committed wilful breach of this court’s directions, the court concluded.
The Supreme Court also reprimanded the DDA officials for misleading the Lieutenant Governor of NCT of Delhi, who holds the position of Chairman of DDA. The court further directed VC Panda to personally address a letter to the LG stating that the documents were suppressed by him while sending the proposal for tree felling to the LG.
Furthermore, the DDA was directed to stop all further activities for road construction and also to visit the site to verify the same.