A petition was moved before the Delhi High Court on Wednesday seeking contempt action against NBCC (India) Limited for allegedly violating its undertaking not to cut any trees till July 4 for its housing projects here.
A Vacation Bench of Justice Vinod Goel and Justice Rekha Palli said it will hear the contempt plea on July 4 along with the main plea, which has sought setting aside of the terms of reference and environmental clearance granted to the project by the Environment Ministry. The contempt plea was filed by environmentalist Vimlendu Jha.
‘Deliberate default’
Mr. Jha alleged that there was deliberate and wilful default of June 25 undertaking given to the High Court by NBCC — tasked with redeveloping half-a-dozen colonies in south Delhi.
The plea stated that the alleged contemnor (chairman-cum-managing director of NBCC Anoop Kumar Mittal) had undertaken not to cut trees in the areas concerned till July 4. But on Tuesday, Mr. Jha noticed that officials and workers of NBCC were felling trees in Netaji Nagar.
The environmentalist took a video of the incident.
The plea said that a police complaint has been filed in this regard at Sarojini Nagar police station. It further sought contempt action against authorities.
The petition also said that when the police refused to lodge an FIR, the Delhi Environment Minister intervened and directed necessary action, including registration of FIR against defaulters.
The High Court had on June 25 asked how the Capital could afford the felling of over 16,500 trees for a housing project.
Taking note of the views expressed by the HC, which appeared inclined to order an interim stay of the tree felling process, the NBCC had given an undertaking to not cut any trees till July 4.
The court was earlier hearing a petition by orthopaedic surgeon Kaushal Kant Mishra against felling of trees for housing projects in six south Delhi colonies — Sarojini Nagar, Naoroji Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Thyagaraja Nagar, Mohammadpur and Kasturba Nagar. A similar issue will be heard by the National Green Tribunal on July 2.