SC Sets Aside 2017 NGT Order Against Art of Living For Damage Caused to Yamuna Floodplains During 2016 Event
New Delhi: Setting aside a 2017 order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) the Supreme Court on Saturday (August 22) directed the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to refund the Rs 5 crore environmental compensation which was deposited by self-styled spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Foundation, reported New Indian Express.
Art of Living Foundation had deposited the environmental compensation after the NGT held that it was Foundation responsible for the damage caused to the Yamuna floodplain following its World Culture Festival in 2016.
The order was passed on Saturday by a bench of Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and N.K. Singh while hearing an appeal filed by Vyakti Vikas Kendra India (VVKI), the organisation associated with AoL Foundation.
While the foundation is the broader international organisation, VVKI, the petitioner in the present case, is a separate Indian entity linked to it.
The Supreme Court said that the NGT’s finding was based on an expert committee report prepared in “violation of natural justice” without giving AoL a chance to submit evidence.
The top court added that the committee’s first estimate of Rs 42.02 crore and thereafter 13.29 crore was arbitrary with no conclusive proof that floodplain was “completely destroyed”.
The court said that the event was held after necessary and due permission from DDA, Ministry of Environment, the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department and other authorities.
Following the event in 2016, an expert committee had told the NGT that rehabilitation of the Yamuna floodplain, “destroyed” during the cultural extravaganza organised by AoL, will cost Rs 13.29 crore and take almost ten years.
The expert committee, headed by Shashi Shekhar, secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, had at the time informed the green panel that major restoration work has to be carried out to compensate for the damage to Yamuna floodplains.
“It has been estimated that approximately 120 hectares (about 300 acres) of floodplains of west (right bank) of the river Yamuna and about 50 hectares (120 acres) floodplains of the eastern side (left bank) of the river have been adversely impacted ecologically at different magnitudes,” the committee had said.
The NGT had in 2016 allowed AOL to hold a three-day ‘World Culture Festival’ on the Yamuna flood plains while expressing its helplessness in banning the event because of “fait accompli”.
It, however, had imposed Rs 5 crore as an interim environmental compensation on the foundation for the event’s impact on the environment.
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