Supreme Court Restrains KRDCL From Felling Heritage Trees For Bengaluru Road Widening Till HC Decides Dispute

The Supreme Court of India has restrained the Karnataka Road Development Corporation (KRDCL) from felling heritage trees for widening of various roads around Bangalore, until the matter is decided by the Karnataka High Court. A division bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice A.S. Bopanna said, "During the course of the hearing, we have expressed the view that we would expect KRDCL not to take any further action in respect of the remaining trees, for the next week having regard to the fact that the High Court would be taking up the matter on November 19." Petitioner Dattatraya T Devare had approached the court challenging an order dated September 20, by which the High Court had permitted the felling of 100 'heritage' trees. The court had accepted a detailed and exhaustive report filed by the University of Agricultural Sciences (GKVK), Bengaluru, Department of Forestry and Environmental Science. It had allowed the 7th respondent (KRDCL) to proceed ahead in the light of the report submitted by the University of Agricultural Sciences(GKVK), Bengaluru. Senior Advocate Dhyan Chinappa appearing for KRDLC submitted that as on date, of the 91 trees which are proposed to be felled,18 trees are left intact apart from 9 trees which are to be translocated. Moreover, it has been submitted that of a total of 7512 trees which would be affected by the project, the Expert Committee has envisaged that 3068 trees would be cut, 642 trees would be retained and 1801 trees would be translocated. He even contended that, "There are serious difficulties in the way of changing the alignment of the road and it was in this backdrop that KRDSL even agreed to having the matter re-examined by the Expert Committee afresh. In view of the report of the EC, it has been urged that there is no merit in the grievance of the petitioners." The bench on going through the submission noted, "Since the matter is pending before the Karnataka High Court it would be appropriate to grant liberty to the petitioners to raise the concerns which they have raised in the present proceedings before the Division Bench when the matter comes up on the next date of listing which is 19 November 2021. Granting liberty to the petitioners to do so, we dispose of the Special Leave Petition without expressing any opinion of this Court on the merits of the rival contentions." It added, "We request the Division Bench of the High Court to consider the submissions of the petitioners when the matter is taken on 19 November 2021 or on a proximate date as would sub-serve the exigencies of the work of the Court." However, the matter was not listed for hearing today before the High Court. Case Title: Dattatraya T Devare & Anr. v. State Of Karnataka & Ors Case No: Special Leave to Appeal (C) No.17310/2021Click Here To Read The Supreme Court OrderClick Here To Read The High Court Order

Supreme Court Restrains KRDCL From Felling Heritage Trees For Bengaluru Road Widening Till HC Decides Dispute

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