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Delhi: The Delhi High Court recently sentenced two officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) to jail for failing to comply with orders passed by the Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) regarding protection of trees.
The High Court had passed several orders directing the PWD and other authorities to exercise due caution in all its works to protect the trees and to remove concrete around them.
Justice Najmi Waziri noted that the officers had disobeyed the judicial orders and such recalcitrance to abide by the law cannot merit anything less than a sentence.
“In the circumstances, respondent nos.2 and 3 are hereby sentenced under section 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of four months and two months respectively, along with fine of Rs. 2000/- each,” the Court ordered.
This sentence will be kept in abeyance for ten weeks so that they can avail legal remedies.
“Should this order not be altered or stayed, then upon the expiry of the ten weeks, the contemnors shall present themselves before the Registrar General of this court for them to be sent to judicial custody,” the order stated.
The order was passed in a contempt plea filed by New Delhi Nature Society. The Court was told that laying down of pipelines/cable lines by BSES Rajdhani on Bipin Chandra Marg and the Chittaranjan Park area had damaged the roots of several trees.
It was argued that in doing so, the authorities had violated the orders passed by the High Court and the NGT.
Justice Waziri had convicted the two officers – the Engineer-in-Chief and the Executive Engineer – of contempt in March last year in the same case.
Advocate Aditya N Prasad appeared for the petitioner society.
Senior Advocate IS Alagh, Additional Standing Counsel Sameer Vashisht and Advocates Vanshay Kaul, Anupam Varma, Nikhil Sharma, Aditya Gupta and Manu Tiwari appeared for the respondents.
