High Court notice to BBMP against felling of trees
The traffic congestion in the City is not due to the narrow roads, but due to lack of proper planning. Justice Shylendra Kumar initiates suo motu proceedings against BBMP’s indiscriminate felling of trees in the City.The High Court directed the State to file objections within two weeks.
Justice Shylendra Kumar initiates suo motu proceedings against BBMP’s indiscriminate felling of trees in the City.The high court on Friday issued notices to the state government, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), and Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, (KSPCB) on a suo motu petition concerning the cutting of trees for road widening in Bangalore.
Following media reports, Justice Kumar had on November 6, 2010 written to the authorities about felling trees for road widening and had expressed concern over the disappearing greenery despite various regulations. In his letter, the judge had stated that the traffic congestion in the City is not due to the narrow roads, but due to lack of proper planning, particularly to regulate traffic.
Stating that the administrators have failed to protect trees which are over 100 years old, the Court has said the matter should be examined by the High Court as a PIL. The petition says that BBMP has violated provisions under Forest Act 1927, Karnataka Forest Act 1963, Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act 1976, Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 and Environment (Protection) Act 1986.
Stating that there is no justification for the proposition that the felling will ease traffic flow, the Court has stated that the orders passed by Deputy Director, forest and tree officer, Commissioner of Police and Department of Town Planning are illegal and blatantly an arbitrary exercise of power.
The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice A S Bopanna directed the State to file objections within two weeks and has appointed Advocate Vaishali Hegde as amicus curie to assist the court.
The court has termed the notification issued by Department of Town planning to fell tree as prima facie illegal and has sought as an interim prayer to defer the felling until the court is satisfied to the legality of the ongoing road widening project.
The petition also stated that any order by tree officer to felling amounts to the violation of Article 14 and termed it as ultra vires (beyond their powers). “The Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act and the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act of the KMC have been violated. There is no objective justification … that felling of trees… will improve the traffic flow. There is no rational explicated to justify the granting of permission to cut trees as permitted by the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act. They ought to have called upon public opinion to justify the need to remove the trees. Therefore the orders passed are illegal, void and a blatant and arbitrary exercise of power,” the judge observed.
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