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Court had recently asked what restoration steps were undertaken for the felling of trees in the ridge area
Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna today recused from hearing a batch of contempt petitions raising concern over felling of 1200 trees in the Delhi ridge.
Justice Khanna pointed out that he recently toured jails as the NALSA Chairman along with the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.
"It will thus not be appropriate for me to hear a petition with him in his personal capacity..", Justice Khanna said while directing that a fresh bench be constituted to hear the case.
A few months back, a bench of then CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra was hearing these batch of contempt petitions.
The bench led by then CJI Chandrachud took up the issue after two separate benches led by Justice BR Gavai and Justice AS Oka, who were hearing two different contempt petitions filed before them on the same issue, raising contempt of two separate orders passed by the Supreme Court over time.
Then CJI led bench had recently called for a fresh affidavit from the Chairperson of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and ex-Vice Chairperson Subhashish Panda, seeking a clarification over the date on which the Chairperson was informed about the felling of trees in the Delhi Ridge.
Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi VK Saxena serves as the present Chairman of DDA.
This happened after the bench noted that the Chairperson's statement that it was only on 10th June that the Chairperson was apprised of the fact of felling of trees would require further clarification.
Earlier Chief Justice of India had sought the DDA Chairman's response on permissions required for cutting the trees, was he informed about permissions being needed, what steps taken as remedial measures and the action taken against erring officers.
Case Title: Bindu Kapurea vs. Subhasish Panda
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