Supreme Court pulls up Delhi Development Authority on tree felling ‘cover-up’

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, June 26

Taking strong exception to an alleged ‘cover-up’ by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on Lieutenant-Governor VK Saxena’s visit to the Ridge area in the national capital where 1,100 trees were felled, the Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled it up for protecting higher-ups by shifting the blame on junior officers.

1,100 trees felled

This is absolute recklessness on your part. You cannot find a simple document. Nothing has been done. No meeting of officers has been called. I really hope that the DDA Vice-Chairman is taking the matter seriously. — SC Bench

A Vacation Bench led by Justice Abhay S Oka directed the Delhi Government, MCD, NDMC and other civic agencies to convene a meeting to discuss comprehensive measures to enhance the national capital’s green cover. While hearing a contempt plea filed by one Bindu Kapurea alleging felling of trees despite the top court’s March 4 court order denying permission to the DDA, the Bench asked the DDA to come clean on it.

“This is absolute recklessness on your part. You cannot find a simple document. Nothing has been done. No meeting of officers has been called. I really hope that the DDA Vice-Chairman is taking the matter seriously. We have doubts in the way things are done. We see that the first part of the e-mail which talks about the L-G’s (February 3) visit is correct…,” the Bench said.

“When the e-mail says that Lieutenant-Governor has visited and allegedly ordered the cutting of trees, was it not the function of the DDA to look into it? The object of the committee is only to save and protect the higher-ups and blame the lower officers like junior engineer or executive engineer,” it said, giving one more week to the DDA vice-chairman to comply with its June 24 directions.

The court’s comments came after senior counsel Maninder Singh submitted on behalf of DDA vice-chairman Subhasish Panda that the Authority was trying to locate the records and it didn’t intend to supply any incorrect information to the court.

Saxena had visited the hospital for central armed paramilitary forces but he did not visit the site concerned, Singh said, seeking further time to submit the information desired by the Bench.

Noting that the request for time was not bona fide, it sought to know the name of the officer present during Saxena’s visit.

As Singh said it was Ashok Kumar Gupta, a member engineering, the Bench directed Gupta to file an affidavit “as an office of the court” detailing what exactly transpired during the L-G’s visit and if any oral instructions were issued by Saxena.

Later, the Bench clarified that it didn’t want to send anyone to jail for contempt of court. “We have issued a contempt notice to the Vice-Chairman, but that does not mean we want to send him to jail. At the same time, he must come clean before the court about who issued directions for felling of trees. If he does that, he will be rendering a great service to the environment and to the justice delivery system. I have hardly sent anyone to jail under the Contempt of Courts Act,” Justice Oka said.

“If the highest authority has done something wrong, there is nothing wrong if it’s told to the court. Ultimately, we are here to take remedial measures. We are not going to run with a hammer in our hands against all authorities, but the truth must come out... That’s why we are spending so much time,” Justice Oka added.

The Bench was surprised to know that the authorities failed to locate the timber from the trees felled. “We are 100% sure that this is the tip of the iceberg… This must have happened in several cases and trees must have been felled. That’s why we are taking a strong view so that the message goes across,” Justice Oka said.

The top court had earlier issued contempt notice to Panda for allowing large-scale felling of trees in Delhi’s southern Ridge’s Satbari area to build a road from Chhattarpur to South Asian University and expressed displeasure over filing of a “misleading” affidavit containing “wrong facts’’. It had ordered the planting of 100 trees for each tree felled by the DDA.

It has also issued criminal contempt notice to the Government of NCT of Delhi through its Principal Secretary, Environment and Forest Department and asked him to file an affidavit by July 22 explaining how the Government permitted felling of trees and why no action was taken by the DDA.

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