Flagging 'blatant breach', SC closes contempt against DDA

The Supreme Court on Wednesday held the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in contempt for illegally felling over 1,000 trees in Delhi's Ridge area without its permission, calling the move a blatant breach of environmental norms and judicial orders.

- Abraham Thomas

NEW DELHI: However, the court spared stringent action against top DDA officials, citing the "overwhelming public interest" served by a new road leading to a multi-specialty hospital for the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).

A bench of justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said the illegal tree-felling for the road to the Central Armed Police Forces Institute of Medical Sciences (CAPFIMS) was a "classic case of institutional missteps and administrative overreach."

"It is only the overwhelming public interest served by the establishment of CAPFIMS that has, in effect, overshadowed the sheer administrative incompetence and blatant disregard for both established procedures and the orders of court," it observed.