Supreme Court - Daily Orders
M.C. Mehta vs Union Of India on 8 April, 2025
Author: Abhay S. Oka
Bench: Abhay S. Oka
ITEM NO.39 COURT NO.4 SECTION PIL-W
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 13381/1984
M.C. MEHTA Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
UNION OF INDIA & ORS. Respondent(s)
[TO BE TAKEN UP AT 2.00 P.M.] ................................. (1)
IN RE: UTTAR PRADESH PROTECTION OF TREES ACT, 1976 (2) IN RE: TREE
CENSUS (3) IA NO. 108684/2023 (APPLN. FOR DIRECTIONS ON BEHALF OF
GOVT. OF U.P.) (4) CEC REPORT NO.31/2024 “ONLY” IN W.P. (C) NO.
13381/1984 ARE LISTED. “ONLY” NAMES OF THE FOLLOWING ADVOCATES MAY
BE TREATED TO HAVE BEEN SHOWN IN THE LIST. PETITIONER-IN-PERSON MR.
A.D.N. RAO, SR. ADVOCATE (A.C.) MR. LIZ MATHEW, SR. ADV. (A.C.) MR.
SIDDHARTHA CHOWDHURY, ADV. (A.C.) MS. AAKASHI LODHA,AOR MS. KESHVI
ARYA, Adv. MR. AMRISH KUMAR, MR. M.K. MARORIA, MR. G.S. MAKKER, MR.
VIJAY PANJWANI, MR. ANKIT GOEL, MR. KAMLENDRA MISHRA
Date : 08-04-2025 This petition was called on for hearing today.
CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ABHAY S. OKA
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE UJJAL BHUYAN
Mr. A.D.N.Rao,Sr.Adv. (Amicus Curiae)
Ms. Liz Mathew,Sr.Adv. (Amicus Curiae)
Mr. Siddhartha Chowdhury, AOR (Amicus Curiae)
Mr. Rahul Mishra,Adv.
Ms. Aakashi Lodha, AOR
Ms. Mallika Agrawal, Adv.
Ms. Bhagwati, Adv.
Mr. Omkar Hemanth, Adv.
For the parties:
Mrs. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G.
Ms. Ruchi Kohli, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR
Ms. Shivika Mehra, Adv.
Ms. Aastha Singh, Adv.
Mrs. Rajeshwari Shankar, Adv.
Mr. Sarthak Karol, Adv.
Mr. Jagdish Chandra Solanki, Adv.
Signature Not Verified
Digitally signed by
ANITA MALHOTRA
Date: 2025.04.17
Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G.
19:36:21 IST
Reason: Mr. Rajeev Kumar Dubey, Adv.
Mr. Ashiwan Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Kamlendra Mishra, AOR
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Mr. S. Wasim A. Qadri, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Lakshmi Raman Singh, AOR
Mr. Saaed Qadri, Adv.
Ms. Bhavna Kapur, Adv.
Mr. Saahil Gupta, Adv.
Mr. Danish Ali, Adv.
Mr. S. Wasim A. Qadri, Sr. Adv.
Ms. Udita Singh, AOR
Mr. Saaed Qadri, Adv.
Mr. Saahil Gupta, Adv.
Ms. Bhavna Kapur, Adv.
Mr. Danish Ali, Adv.
Ms. Garima Prashad, Sr. A.A.G.
Mr. Sudeep Kumar, AOR
Ms. Manisha, Adv.
Mr. Manoj K. Mishra, AOR
Mr. Bheem Pratap Singh, Adv.
Mr. Umesh Dubey, Adv.
Mr. Anand Kumar Rai, Adv.
Ms. Vuzmal Nehru, Adv.
Mr. Amrendra Kumar Singh, Adv.
Petitioner-in-person
Applicant-in-person
Mr. Atishi Dipankar, AOR
Mr. Ankur Prakash, AOR
Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR
Mr. Badri Prasad Singh, AOR
Mr. Ajit Sharma, AOR
M/S. Lawyer S Knit & Co, AOR
Mrs. Rachana Joshi Issar, AOR
Mr. Kishan Chand Jain, Adv.
Mr. Ashwini Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Rajesh Kumar, Adv.
Mr. E. C. Agrawala, AOR
Dr. Mrs. Vipin Gupta, AOR
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Mr. Prashant Kumar, AOR
Mr. Rajiv Tyagi, AOR
Mr. Ajay K. Agrawal, AOR
Mr. Shiv Prakash Pandey, AOR
Mr. Sudhir Kulshreshtha, AOR
Mr. Abhinav, Adv.
Mr. P. K. Manohar, AOR
Mr. Pradeep Misra, AOR
Mr. Indu Misra, Adv.
Mr. Daleep Dhyani, Adv.
Mr. Suraj Singh, Adv.
Mr. P. Parmeswaran, AOR
Mr. P. Narasimhan, AOR
M/S. Manoj Swarup And Co., AOR
Dr. Sumant Bharadwaj, Adv.
Mr. Vedant Bharadwaj, Adv.
Ms. Mridula Ray Bharadwaj, AOR
M/S. Meharia & Company, AOR
Mr. Ankit Goel, AOR
Mr. Anurag Kishore, AOR
Mr. Rachit Mittal, AOR
Mr. Nishit Agrawal, AOR
Mr. Zoheb Hossain, AOR
Mr. Shishir Deshpande, AOR
Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR
Mr. Arvind Gupta, AOR
Mr. Shantanu Bansal, AOR
Mr. Jogy Scaria, AOR
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Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar, AOR
Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv.
Mr. Dhruv Yadav, Adv.
Mr. Rajeev Kumar Dubey, AOR
Mrs. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G.
Mrs. Ruchi Kohli,Sr.Adv.
Mr. Shivika Mehra, Adv.
Mr. Adit Khorana, Adv.
Mr. Sarthak Karol, Adv.
Mr. T.S Sabarish, Adv.
Mr. Chitvan Singhal, Adv.
Mr. Sudarshan Lamba, AOR
Mr. Amrish Kumar, AOR
Mr. Adarsh Tripathi , AOR
Mr. Sunny Choudhary, AOR
Mr. Siddhartha Chowdhury, AOR
Mr. Saurabh Mishra, AOR
Mr. Shrimay Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Rakesh Chander, Adv.
Mr. Ashutosh Dubey, AOR
Mrs. Rajshri Dubey, Adv.
Mr. Abhishek Chauhan, Adv.
Mr. H.B. Dubey, Adv.
Mr. Amit P. Shahi, Adv.
Mr. Amit Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Rahul Sethi, Adv.
Mr. Shashi Bhushan Nagar, Adv.
Mr. Manish Dhingra, Adv.
Mrs. Sona Khan, Adv.
Mr. Sumant Akram Khan, Adv.
Mr. Rajendra Anbhule, Adv.
Mr. Chitranshul A. Sinha, AOR
Mr. Ankur Prakash, AOR
Mr. Vishal Arun Mishra, AOR
Ms. Rupali Panwar, Adv.
Mr. U M Tripathi, Adv.
Mr. Vivek Kumar Singh, Adv.
Mr. Shubham Gupta, Adv.
Mr. Khushhal Aggarwal, Adv.
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Mr. Vivek Narayan Sharma, AOR
Mr. Saurabh Yadav, AOR
Mr. Gaurav Goel, AOR
Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G.
Ms. Ruchi Kohli,Sr.Adv.
Ms. Shivika Mehra, Adv.
Ms. Aastha Singh, Adv.
Ms. Rajeshwari Shankar, Adv.
Mr. Sarthak Karol, Adv.
Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR
M/S. Gsl Chambers, AOR
M/S. M. V. Kini & Associates, AOR
Mr. Arjun Nanda, AOR
Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR
Mr. Gaurav Goel, AOR
Ms. Rajkumari Banju, AOR
Mr. Gopal Krishna, Adv.
Dr. Rajeev Sharma, AOR
Mr. Shantanu Krishna, AOR
Mr. Ankit Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Alok Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Saksham Maheshwari , AOR
Mr. Ajay Agarwal, A.A.G.
Mr. Pushkar Sharma, AOR
Mr. Vinod Kumar, Adv.
Ms. Nagma Bee, Adv.
Mr. Sumeer Sodhi, AOR
Ms. Sandali Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Abhinav Agrawal, AOR
Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Choudhary, Adv.
Mrs. Shradha Choudhary, Adv.
Mr. Seshatalpa Sai Bandaru, AOR
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Mr. Gaurav Dhingra, AOR
Mr. Shashank Singh, Adv.
Mr. Surendra Gautam, Adv.
Mr. Vivek Pathak, Adv.
Mr. Devesh Maurya, Adv.
Mr. Ravi Kumar, Adv.
Ms. Ashu Tomar, Adv.
Mr. Sukhamrit Singh, Adv.
Mr. Praveen Swarup, AOR
Ms. Mayuri Raghuvanshi, AOR
Mr. Abhijit Banerjee, AOR
Mrs. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G.
Ms. Ruchi Kohli,Sr. Adv.
Ms. Shivika Mehra, Adv.
Mr. Aaditya Dixit, Adv.
Mr. Kartikeya Asthana, Adv.
Mr. Gaurang Bhushan, Adv.
Dr. N. Visakamurthy, AOR
Mr. Prashant , AOR
Mr. Abhinav Shrivastava, AOR
Ms. Saroj Tripathi, AOR
Ms. Shweta Sharma, AOR
Mr. Abhishek Chaudhary, AOR
Mr. Syed Abdul Haseeb, AOR
Mr. Anshul Gupta , AOR
Mr. Satya Kam Sharma , AOR
Mr. Virender Kumar, Adv.
Ms. Garima Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Shalen Bhardwaj, Adv.
Mr. Ashok Kumar Panigrahi, Adv.
Ms. Banisha Verma, Adv.
Ms. Lakshmi, Adv.
Mr. Nischal Kumar Neeraj, AOR
Mr. N. L. Ganapathi, AOR
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Ms. Anju Thomas, AOR
Mr. Sanjeev Kaushik, Adv.
Ms. Muskan Surana, Adv.
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
IN RE:Uttar Pradesh Protection of Trees Act, 1976
1. By order dated 29th November, 2024, this Court had directed the State of Uttar Pradesh to re-look at Sections 10 and 15 of the Uttar Pradesh Protection of Trees Act, 1976 (for short, "the Act") in terms of what is observed in the last order. Time has been repeatedly granted to make compliance.
2. Finally, we grant time of four weeks as prayed by the learned Additional Solicitor General appearing for the State of Uttar Pradesh. No further time shall be granted. Compliance to be reported within a period of four weeks which will be considered on 13th May, 2025 at the end of the Board.
3. IA No.19174 of 2025 seeking extension of time is accordingly disposed of.
IN RE: TREE CENSUS
4. We have perused the affidavit filed by Ms. Richa Mishra, Head, Silviculture and Forest Management Division, Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
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5. We approve the suggestion to adopt the definition of ‘tree’ given by the Forest Survey of India (for short, “the FSI”) as we have done in the case of Delhi by the order dated 26th March, 2025 in Writ Petition (Civil)No.4677 of 1985. We also approve the suggestions to exclude the trees situated in reserved, protected forest, and the forests notified under the Indian Forest Act, 1927 as amended in its application to State of Uttar Pradesh. However, we direct that the Tree Census of the trees situated in cantonment areas and Government lands and gardens shall be carried out.
6. We make it clear that the Forest Research Institute (for short, “the FRI”) will carry out the Tree Census even in respect of the area falling in the State of Rajasthan which is covered by the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) area.
7. We are of the view that the timelines provided in paragraph 4 of the affidavit are too long. For that purpose, the FRI shall be guided by the directions issued by this Court under the order dated 26th March, 2025 in Writ Petition (Civil)No.4677 of 1985.
8. Now, we come to the budget as indicated in the affidavit. Perhaps there is a lot of overlap in the work which the FRI will be doing in the case of Delhi and in case of TTZ area, such as establishment of tree cell, engagement of manpower, procurement etc. Some of these 8 items are common with items in the budget in case of Delhi. We are of the view that the FRI needs to have a re-look at the budget proposed in the affidavit as the infrastructure which may be created by the FRI for doing tree survey in Delhi can be used for tree survey in TTZ area. The FRI shall also incorporate the budget in relation to the State of Rajasthan.
9. We, therefore, direct the FRI to have a re-look at the budget and submit a fresh budget as well as fresh timelines in view of what we have observed above within a period of four weeks from today.
10. For considering the fresh affidavit which may be filed by the FRI, list on 13 th May, 2025 at end of the Board.
CEC REPORT NO.14/2025 in IA NO. 108684/2023 (APPLN. FOR DIRECTIONS ON BEHALF OF GOVT. OF U.P.)
11. In view of the observations made in the report in paragraph 6(xii), we direct the applicant and the State of Uttar Pradesh to comply with the recommendation in clause (ii) of paragraph 7 of the report. After compliance is reported with clause (ii), the Court will consider of permitting tree felling in terms of clause
(i) of paragraph 7 of the recommendation. We permit the National Highway Division of the State of Uttar Pradesh to move this Court after a compliance is made with clause
(ii) of paragraph 7.
9 CEC REPORT NO.31/2024 in IA NOS.1566, 1572 and 1573 of 2023
12. A compliance affidavit has been filed by the Uttar Pradesh Bridge Corporation in terms of the conditions proposed by the CEC in Report No.31 of 2024. We direct the CEC to examine the compliance affidavit and submit a report within three weeks which shall be considered on 13th May, 2025 at the end of the Board.
Report No.17/2024
13. We have perused the affidavit filed by the TTZ Authority pursuant to the Report No.17/2024 and the order passed by this Court on 11th February, 2025. The notices have been issued to those who have felled over 100 trees and next step will be to issue notices to those who have felled more than 50 but less than 100 trees. Hearing of show cause notices issued has been fixed on 11th April, 2025.
14. Further compliance will be reported by the TTZ Authority before 22nd April, 2025, which will be considered on the same day i.e. 22nd April, 2025 at 12.00 Noon.
(ANITA MALHOTRA) (AVGV RAMU)
AR-CUM-PS COURT MASTER
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