SC orders status quo on Aarey; says 'don't cut any more trees'

In a big relief to environmental activists throughout the country, the Supreme Court today in a special hearing ordered status quo be maintained on the cutting of the trees in the Aarey region of Mumbai.

The bench comprising of Justices Arun Mishra and Justice Ashok Bhushan was hearing the plea seeking a stay on the cutting of over 2600 trees in Aarey, Mumbai for construction of a Metro car shed. A letter written by law students from NOIDA was converted into public interest litigation by the Supreme Court after taking suo moto cognisance of the matter yesterday.

SC arguments

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta appeared for the Maharashtra government while former ASG Maninder Singh appeared for the BMRC with Senior advocate Sanjay Hedge and Gopal Sankarnarayan appeared for the petitioners and the students. 

The hearing began with advocate Vineet Dhanda mentioning his already pending petition before the Supreme Court on the issue of whether or not the trees in the Aarey region constituted a “forest”. Another petition challenging the Bombay High Court verdict was also mentioned at the very beginning. 

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Gopal Sankarnarayan also told the two-judge bench that the question of Aarey being a forest or not is already pending before the Supreme Court and that there is another plea pending before the National Green Tribunal on whether or not Aarey was an Eco-sensitive zone. On being questioned by the bench whether there was an official notification declaring Aarey to be an eco-sensitive zone, Sankarnarayan told the judges that the notification existed, but was withdrawn. 

Justice Mishra stated that as per the understanding of the bench, Aarey was a “no-development zone” but not an “Eco-sensitive zone”. 

Sankarnarayan also argued that Aarey was an “unclassified forest” while stating that there was no official definition of “forest” under the Indian Forest Act. 

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, on the other hand stated that “environment was a genuine concern for everyone”. He supplemented his statement by telling the court that saplings had been planted by the government in turn for the trees in Aarey that were being cut. 

After objection being raised by Justice Mishra telling the Solicitor General that planting saplings was different from looking after the trees, Mehta assured the court that no more trees will be cut during the time that the matter was pending before the top court. 

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Justice Mishra during the course of the hearing also asked Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde to come forth with evidence on how he was arguing that Aarey was a forest. 

Supreme Court also made it clear to the Maharashtra government that if trees can't be cut legally, it can't be done at all. The court also sought a report from Maharashtra government on compulsory afforestation. "Tell us how many saplings you planted. How have they grown? What's the status of your forests?" asked Justice Mishra.

The SC also went on to direct the government to immediately release any of the protestors who had been arrested over the past few days. The SC will now take up the matter for hearing on October 21. Till then, the government has been ordered to ensure no cutting of trees will take place.

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