Observing that the brazen acts of cutting trees in the national capital’s Ridge area cannot be brushed aside lightly, the Supreme Court on Monday sought to know from the Vice Chairman of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) if the illegal felling of trees in ridge forest was carried out based on the direction issued by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.

Expressing shock over the actions of DDA, a vacation bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said: “Such brazen acts in the capital city cannot be lightly brushed aside by this court. If the authorities are not performing their statutory and constitutional duties of protecting the environment, the court has to give a clear and loud signal to all authorities that the environment cannot be damaged in such a fashion.”

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It was very shocking that the trees were being cut despite knowing that it cannot be done without the permission of the top court, the bench said that it proposes to hold a detailed enquiry into the acts of the DDA which resulted in destruction of several valuable trees and consequentially degradation of the environment.

The top court was hearing a suo motu contempt case initiated by it against DDA Vice Chairman Subhashish Panda for the felling of large-scale trees in violation of the orders of the court.

The apex court after perusing the report by an Enquiry Committee which has been constituted by the DDA to inquire into the felling of trees, noted that certain email communications referred to a site visit made by the Lieutenant Governor on February 3, 2024.

“We direct the vice-chairman to state before the court about whether any official record is available regarding the site visit of the Lieutenant Governor on February 3 and on what transpired on the visit of the Lieutenant Governor. We need a clear statement of facts from the vice-chairman, because if what is indicated in the emails is correct, then the felling of the trees was on the directions by the Lieutenant Governor. We expect the DDA to come clean on this aspect,” the bench said, pitting DDA on notice.

Referring to the affidavit of the vice-chairman, the bench said that the “entire blame has been shifted on the officers stating that they were responsible for directing the contractors to cut the trees without the permission of the court.”

It issued notices to concerned DDA officers and sought their response by July 12.

Posting the matter for June 26, the vacation bench said it proposes to issue directions for a massive tree plantation drive in the entire Delhi and asked the DDA and Attorney General R Venkataramani to assist it in the matter.

Earlier, the top court had directed the DDA to stop all further activities for road construction and had expressed displeasure about how the entire exercise of tree cutting was done in the Delhi ridge area without permission of the court. It had also directed planting of 100 new trees for each tree felled by the DDA.

The top court had also issued contempt notice to the vice-chairman of DDA for the felling of over 1,000 trees for the construction of an approach road.