Supreme Court pulls up DDA for cutting trees in violation of court order

The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for felling trees in certain areas, including the forest ridge near Delhi University, in violation of an earlier court order to maintain status quo [Bindu Kapuria v. Subhasish Panda]..During the May 14 hearing, the Vice-Chairman of the DDA appeared before the Court and accepted that trees were cut down both on DDA land and in forest areas.A Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan observed that the DDA's actions appeared to be criminal contempt of court, but said it would deal with this aspect on May 16."Prima facie, this conduct may amount to criminal contempt. However, we will pass appropriate order in this regard on the next date," the Court said. .The Court ordered the DDA's Vice-Chairman to be present before the Court for the next hearing and file a personal affidavit on measures to restore the trees felled despite the Court's earlier orders. The said affidavit should also disclose details of the officers who authorised the felling of trees, the Court ordered. "We expect Shri Subhasish Panda, Vice-Chairman of the DDA, to come out with at least approximate figure of the trees felled and names of the officers of the DDA who authorised felling of trees. He will also tell us the names of the officers who permitted the contractor to fell the trees. He will also point out when the process of felling of trees commenced ... The personal presence of Shri Subhasish Panda, Vice-Chairman of the DDA will be mandatory," the Court's May 14 order said. .The Court was dealing with a batch of contempt petitions raising concern over large-scale tree felling by the DDA.On May 9, the Court issued notice on one such contempt petition and ordered the authorities not to do any further tree-felling in the area.On Tuesday, the Court extended the operation of this interim relief."In the meanwhile, the interim relief granted earlier by this Court to continue," the Court said..In a related contempt petition, the Court also expressed dissatisfaction over a counter-affidavit filed by the DDA on May 13 and ordered it to file an additional counter-affidavit within two weeks.Among other details, the Court asked the DDA to disclose in this affidavit whether any expert opinion was taken before removing "dead vegetation and dried stems" from the area where the tree felling took place. This matter will be heard next on July 9. .The petitioners were represented by Senior Advocates Huzefa Ahmadi and Madhavi Divan and advocates Ranjeeta Rohatgi, Nikhil Rohatgi, Ankit Shah and Manan Verma.The DDA was represented by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati..[Read Order]