Supreme Court grants stay on tree felling activities in Pune till Dec 21
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By: Pune Pulse
December 15, 2023
Pune: The Supreme Court ( SC) on Friday granted a stay on the removal of trees for the expansion of Ganeshkhind Road in Pune until December 21 in order to give petitioners time to file a case with the Bombay High Court.
As per further information, an appeal against the interim ruling of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) regarding the matter of trees being felled by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Ganeshkhind Road was being heard by the SC bench comprising of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
The SC has asked the petitioners to approach the Bombay High Court for further proceedings in this case. It was further ordered that no more felling shall occur between the date of this order i.e. December 15, 2023, to December 21, 2023 (Tuesday) in order to give the petitioners a reasonable amount of time to approach the High Court.
The issue concerns a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) brought before the Bombay High Court by Ameet Singh, a core member of Pune River Revival & a Pune citizen activist, opposing the careless felling of trees on Pune’s well-known Ganeshkhind Road, also referred to as University Road, in order to widen the road. At that time, the High Court Bench issued an order on October 12, 2023, compelling the PMC to rehear public objections & suggestions to tree felling.
In the most recent hearing, which took place on December 11, 2023, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) rescheduled the matter for hearing on January 25, 2024, refusing to order a stay to the PMC for its tree-felling operations.
Therefore, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) has granted a stay on tree felling activities on Ganeshkhind Road in Pune till December 21 for the petitioners to approach the Bombay High Court for further proceedings of this case.
Shreyas Vange
