Delhi High Court issues contempt of court notice to Forest Official after two trees felled in JNU

The Delhi High Court recently issued a contempt of court notice to Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF), South Division, for granting permission to cut 2 trees and transplant 132 in Old Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus in violation of an undertaking given to the Court [Bhavreen Kandhari v CD Singh and Ors.]..Justice Jasmeet Singh noted that although the matter was taken up four days after the felling occurred, the Court was not apprised of the permission granted by Delhi Forest Department.."Even though the matter was taken up on 03.05.2024, the fact that permission for felling of two trees and transplantation of 132 trees had already been granted by respondent No. 2 was not intimated to this court," the Court stated..The order was passed in a case concerning non-compliance with the Court's 2022 directions requiring tree officers to spell out reasons for felling even a single tree. It was alleged that despite these directions, permission for felling was granted 22 times between May and August 2022.Thereafter, on August 31, 2023, the Court was told by Delhi government that till the next date of hearing, no permission for felling of trees for any individuals will be granted and any permission required for important projects will be intimated to the Court..During the hearing on Wednesday, the Court took note of felling and transplantation that occurred on April 29 for construction of a building at Institute of Secretariat Training and Management (ISTM), Old JNU Campus ..The Court also noted an application moved by the Forest Division which was eventually withdrawn.In that application, the Forest Division sought clarity on whether the permissions were meant to be intimated to the Court or placed before the Court. This application was accompanied by an affidavit filed by DCF South..The Court clarified that its earlier observations were in no way a blanket permission to the DCFs to construe that the August 2023 order permits them to grant permission to cut trees for important projects.Therefore, the Court determined that prima facie, the DCF was guilty of violating the Court's August 2023 order and deserved to be proceeded against for contempt of court.Accordingly, it sought an explanation from DCF on why action for contempt of court should not be initiated against him. The matter will be heard further on July 5..Advocates Aditya N Prasad, Gauram Narayan and Prabhsahay Kaur assisted the Court as amici curiae.Advocates Abhimanyu Bhandari, Roohl Hina Dua, Sahib Kochhar and Shreya Arora appeared for the applicants..Senior Advocate Chetan Sharma, advocates Tarun Johri, Ankur Gupta, Vishwajeet Tyagi, Dhairya Gupta, Gautam Mann, Bhavishya Makhija, Waize Ali Noor, Varun Rajawat, Vidhi Jain, Aryan Agrawal, Petal Chandhok, Rupali Gupta, Amit Peswani, Rajesh Katyal, T Singhdev, Aabhas, Yoginder Handoo, Ashwin Kataria, Garvit Solank, Ashutosk Kaushik, Roni John, Harshita Nathrani and Vanshay Kaul, Central Government Standing Counsel (CGSC) Standing Counsel (SC) Siddhant Nath and Manika Tripathy, Additional Standing Counsel (ASC) Nandita Rao, Anupam Srivastava and Sameer Vashisht, appeared for various respondents..[Read Order]