NGT - law insider

Shivangi Prakash-

Published on: September 7, 2021, at 15:03 IST

The Supreme Court recently issued notice in a plea filed by the Naharpur Residents Welfare Association questioning the order of the National Green Tribunal’s Principal Bench.

The Tribunal refused to stop the illegal felling/cutting of about 500 trees in the green belt surrounding the village of Naharpur, which serves as the lungs of 25,000 people.

Today, the Bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Abhay S Oka issued a notice in the case.

The NGT’s impugned Order, dated July 23, 2021, is said to be opaque, non-speaking, and inappropriate, and so liable to be set aside only on this basis.

The RWA has relied on images that unequivocally show that a considerable trees in the village’s green spaces have already fallen or been destroyed illegally by miscreants.

Furthermore, the appellants claim that no action has been done in response to the March 17, 2021 representation sent to the Forest Department in this matter.

In 2013, the Delhi Development Authority applied to the State Government for permission to take down the 287 trees that surrounded the village of Naharpur at the time (which has now grown to over 500 trees). The Appellant Association then petitioned the Government to order the DDA not to cut the trees in question.

The Appellant then sent several requests to the Respondent authorities, urging that no tree be cut down following the e-auction, but they did not respond.

This year, the Appellant filed another application with the NGT, this time requesting an urgent order to prohibit the illegal felling of trees, which the NGT incorrectly assumed was only for the protection of four trees.

Also Read: SC upheld NGT action against BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal

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