Delhi High Court Issues Directions On Cutting Down of Trees Under Official Sanction

The Delhi High issued directions to Deputy Conservator Forest (DCF) and Tree Officer regarding effective implementation of Standard Operation Procedure (SOP), which aims to ensure felling / transplantation of trees.

A contempt petition was filed against the contemnors namely Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) and 3 different Tree Officers of various divisions for violating the order dealing with the preservation of Trees in Delhi.

The Bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh observed, “This Court is dealing with the rights of the citizens of Delhi and the rights protected under Article 21 of the Constitution of India to live in a clean and pollution free environment. Hence, this Court is not considering a policy decision of the respondent, but only an SOP made pursuant to the directions passed by this Court”.

Case Brief

A contempt petition was filed for initiating contempt proceedings against the contemnors namely Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) and 3 different Tree Officers of various divisions for violating the order dealing with the preservation of Trees in Delhi.

Court’s Reasoning

The Court emphasised, “The endeavour of this Court from the facts narrated above is only to ensure that the SOP which aims to ensure felling / transplantation of trees must be implemented in an effective manner to achieve the desired objective.”

The Court firstly considered whether in a contempt jurisdiction, the Delhi High Court has the power to impose conditions to ensure effective implementation of the orders passed by the Court. While referring to various judgments, the Court opined that the powers of the Constitutional Courts under Article 215 of the Constitution, as Courts of Record are not limited or regulated by the Contempt of Courts Act to punish the contemnors. The powers under Article 215 are to ensure faithful and complete implementation of the directions passed by the Courts.

Later, the Court in addition to the SOP already gazetted, issued the following directions, among others:

1. DCF/ Tree Officer shall be involved at the very stage of planning of a project which involves felling/transplantation of trees.

2. The compensatory plantation shall ensure that the trees which are to be planted are not less than 6 feet in height, have a nursery life of 5 years and a collar girth of not less than 10 cms.

3. The applicant who moves the application for felling of trees, will file an affidavit in this Court with a copy to the learned Amicus appointed under these proceedings as well as with the DCF, undertaking to take care of the compensatory planted trees for a period of 05 years, including watering, maintenance and general upkeep and shall file quarterly report with latest photographs

4. Trees sought to be transplanted should not be heavily pruned.

Further, it was observed that the SOP will function in terms of the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, including Section 7(d) and the post-approval monitoring will be done by the DCF.

Cause Title: Bhavreen Kandhari V. Shri C.D. Singh And Ors

Appearance:

Petitioner: Senior Advocate Gautam Narayan, Satyakam and Asmita Singh, Amicis

Respondent: Chetan Sharma, ASG, Senior Advocate Apoorv Kurup, Advocates Balendu Shekhar, Krishna Chaitanya, Rahul Rajput, with P Jagan, Scientist “E”, Advocates Rajeev J. Agarwal, Sameer Vashisht, SC (Civil) GNCTD, Vaishali Gupta, Panel Counsel (Civil) GNCTD, Amit Gupta & Anubhav Gupta & Manashwy Jha, Manu Chaturvedi, Standing Counsel for MCD

Click here to read/download Order.