The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its judgment concerning alleged contempt of court after trees were reportedly cut down in the Delhi Ridge area for a road widening project, in violation of its previous orders. Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh highlighted the need to assess the gravity of the contempt linked to these actions.
The allegations arose from a contempt plea filed by Bindu Kapurea, who claimed that despite the Supreme Court’s explicit order on March 4 last year prohibiting such action, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) proceeded with the felling of trees. This was ostensibly to widen a road leading to a hospital serving paramilitary personnel, a detail that complicated the judicial assessment of the case’s urgency and validity.
During the proceedings, the bench articulated the necessity of understanding the context and intentions behind the tree felling: “We need to see the gravity of contempt in this matter. Whether the trees were felled for widening of road to the hospital, meant for paramilitary jawans, who serve in remote areas like in jungles or in Leh, where there are minimal medical facilities. Or, were the trees felled to widen the road for the benefit of affluent persons of the area,” the Justices stated.
Senior advocate Vikash Singh, representing the Delhi Lieutenant Governor, acknowledged the court’s previous restriction on tree felling and proposed a remedial action of planting around 70,000 saplings to address the contempt, far exceeding the originally mandated 5,340 saplings.
In contrast, Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing Kapurea, argued that the contempt was a serious and deliberate violation of the court’s orders, suggesting that the road alignment was altered to benefit affluent residents near the hospital, leading to unnecessary deforestation.
