Apex court to hear PIL on felling of Aarey trees today

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 6

Converting a letter written by a law student on felling of trees in Aarey colony in Mumbai into a PIL, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has ordered a special sitting of the Supreme Court tomorrow to take up the issue.

“Take note that a Special Bench has been constituted to hear the matter tomorrow i.e. October 7, 2019, at 10 am on the basis of a letter dated October 6, 2019, addressed by Rishav Ranjan with regard to felling of trees in Aarey Forest, State of Maharashtra, which has been registered as a public interest litigation,” the top court announced on its website this evening.

The hearing will take place despite the fact that the SC is closed for Dussehra vacation from October 7 to 12.

After the Bombay High Court on Friday rejected a petition against the felling of trees, the BMC started cutting down trees at night, inviting protests from activists, many of whom were arrested by the police. The trees are being felled to pave way for the construction of a Mumbai Metro car shed on 33 hectares.

Highlighting that the authorities had already felled 1,500 trees, the law student (Rishav Ranjan) had sought to meet the CJI, demanding his urgent intervention to stop it.

“This is on the banks of the ‘Mitthi river’ which has tributaries and channels flowing to it and emptying in the river. Its absence can flood Mumbai and it has more than 3500 trees in it out of which 2,238 are proposed to be cut down. The question is why should a forest which has 3,500 trees in it on the banks of a river be removed?” Rishav said in his letter to the CJI.