Delhi High Court Issues Notices To MCD & PWD On Violation Of Orders For De-Concretisation Of Trees
The Delhi High Court issued notices to the MCD Commissioner, DCF and PWD on violation of orders on the de-concretisation of trees in Old Rajinder Nagar.
The Court said that the present case is a classic example of total disregard for the orders passed by the Court and lack of due care.
The Court was hearing an Application seeking directions against the MCD and the Department of Forest for de-concretisation of the Peepal/Banyan tree in Old Rajinder Nagar and also requests contempt proceedings against the erring officers.
The bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh observed, “Let notice be issued to the Commissioner, MCD as well as to the DCF, North-West as to why contempt action should not be taken against them for violating orders passed by this Court.”
Advocate Aditya N. Prasad appeared for the Appellant and ASG MS Sharma appeared for the Respondent.
Brief Facts-
In the present case, a Peepal/Banyan tree of at least 60 years old, is concretised. Thereafter, due to the weakening of the roots caused by rampant concretisation, the tree tilted and was threatening the adjoining house. The Applicant stated that rather than de-concretisation of the tree, the MCD sought permission for heavy pruning. It is stated that no inspection was done by the Department of Forest, however, the Horticulture Department, MCD have incessantly pruned the tree in question, leaving it completely bereft of any leaves.
After noting the pictures the Court observed, “…tree is completely concretised, which resulted in weakening of the roots. The same could perhaps be because of an existing illegal structure, which seems to be a religious structure, covering the entire root of the tree. Thereafter, the tree has been cut and today it remains just a log of wood.”
The Court further observed, “Despite the order having been passed more than 2 and a half years ago, there are no steps, which are visible on ground, showing de- concretisation of trees and compliance of orders of this court.”
While noting that the MCD has written to the DCF for taking steps and the DCF has in turn written to the MCD to take steps for restoration the Court said, “this is a classic example of one agency passing on its responsibility to another agency, showing total apathy towards the trees of Delhi and their rampant concretisation.”
The Court said that the MCD as well as the DCF, North are guilty of contempt of the directions passed by the Court and should be punished for contempt of Court.
The Court noted that the senior officials of MCD and the Department of Forest are responsible for ensuring that the orders passed by the court are taken to their logical conclusions through their subordinate officers.
The Court said that despite almost a year, the trees in Delhi High Court have not been de-concretised.
“PWD is in contempt of the order…”, the Court further noted.
The Court listed the matter on September 20, 2024.
Cause Title: Bhavreen Kandhari v. C.D. Singh
Appearance:
Appellant: Advocates Aditya N. Prasad, Pratyush Jain, Poorvi, Gautam Narayan, Prabhsahay Kaur, Ankit Jain, Aditya Chauhan, Apurva Tyagi, Radhika Bansal and Divyanshu Rathi
Respondent: ASG Chetan Sharma, CGSC Kirtiman Singh, ASC Mehak Nakra, SC Sanjay Kumar Pathak, Senior Advocate Sanjay Upadhyay, Advocates Ankur Gupta, Tarun Johari, Saurabh Tripathi, Vikramaditya Singh, Shubham Sharma, Waize Ali Noor, Varun Pratap Singh, Rajeev, Ashish Kumar, Farman Ali, Usha Jamnal, Amit George, Akshat Gupta, Manika Tripathy, Ashutosh Kaushik, Sunil Kumar Jha, MS Akhtar, Mayank Madhu, Mussarat B. Hashmi, Mohinder JS Rupal, Hardik Rupal, Surya Gupta and Mansi Bachani