Supreme Court fines MMRCL Rs 10 lakh for trying to fell more trees in Aarey

Aarey

The Supreme Court (SC) on April 17 took a very serious view of the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd’s (MMRCL) attempt to overreach its orders by seeking permission to fell 177 trees in the Aaarey forest from the Tree Authority as opposed to the court-sanctioned 84 trees.

The court imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on MMRCL and asked it to deposit the fine with the chief conservator of forests. The court, however, refused to stay the order of the Tree Authority, granting permission to cut 177 trees as it would amount to stopping a public interest project.

The trees were sought to be cut for the construction of the Metro car shed.

The case reached the SC after a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Bombay High Court, challenging the order of the Tree Authority.

The High Court ordered that trees in Aarey forest cannot be felled without a clarification from the SC, and the MMRCL and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) appealed against this order before the SC.

At the SC on April 17, lawyers appearing for the PIL petitioners explained what had transpired and sought the court to penalise MMRCL. Appearing for MMRCL, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta admitted that the organisation’s actions were not correct and urged the court to not grant any stay as it is an important public interest project.

The court, after hearing the arguments from both the sides, levied a fine on MMRCL and asked the conservator of forests to monitor the afforestation exercises carried out by MMRCL. Furthermore, the SC has asked IIT Bombay to depute a team to verify the afforestation efforts and file a report in three weeks.

The court further noted that MMRCL should have sought SC permission to fell 177 trees as it was the apex court that granted it the permission to fell the trees by modifying the earlier status quo order.

In November 2022, the SC permitted felling of 84 trees for a Metro car shed project. The government has now moved an application as it seeks to fell additional trees after a new assessment revealed that many trees have cropped up since the last survey in 2019.

The SG said “124 (trees) have to be cut and 54 can be transplanted. The Tree Authority has already granted permission. However, someone moved the Bombay HC before we could seek SC’s permission. Hence, the delay in carrying on with the project.”

The felling of trees in the colony has been opposed by green activists and residents. In their first cabinet meeting held hours after coming to power, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis had taken the first step towards overturning the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government's decision to relocate the proposed car shed project from Aarey Colony.

Incidentally, Thackeray, immediately after becoming the chief minister in November 2019, had announced a stay on the construction of the proposed project and later ordered it be shifted to Kanjurmarg.

The High Court, in October 2019, refused to declare Aarey Colony a forest and declined to quash the BMC’s decision to allow the felling of over 2,600 trees in the green zone to set up the car shed.

The SC took suo motu cognizance of the issue and ordered a status quo on felling of trees in Aarey Colony. However, it later clarified that there was no stay on the construction of the car shed at Aarey Colony and the status quo order is only applicable on felling of trees there.

Since the SC’s order, the government had to take the court’s permission to fell the trees in Aarey Colony.