Thread by @VakashaS

At the Supreme Court for the hearing on the #AareyForest case.

On 7 October, special bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta had stayed the cutting of trees by Mumbai Metro authorities for a metro car shed.

@TheQuint

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The case reached the SC because the MMRCL moved to cut down around 2600 trees on the night of 4 October, just hours after the Bombay HC dismissed a bunch of petitions that had challenged the tree-felling.

Legal issues at play @TheQuint :
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On 7 October, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had informed the SC that "Whatever had to be cut has been cut. No further cutting of trees is required."

Afterwards, MMRCL clarified that 2141 trees had been cut, and that the SC hadn't prohibited them from construction.
@TheQuint

The #AareyForest matters are now being heard by the judges. @TheQuint

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta (appearing for BMC) raises the issue of what exactly the SC order from 7 Oct stayed.

MMRCL says it only covers felling of trees, it doesn't prevent them from clearing cut trees or subsequent construction activities. @TheQuint

Sanjay Hegde, appearing for the law students who had approached the court to take up the issue urgently, notes that even a cut tree can regrow, so the SC order also prevents clearing away cut trees. @TheQuint

Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for environmental activists Zoru Bathena and Amrita Bhattacharjee (who had challenged the permission given by BMC to MMRCL for the cutting), asks the court to clarify that its interim order will continue, as it was expiring today. @TheQuint

Tushar Mehta says the SC order is clear, and the MMRCL (represented by senior advocates Maninder Singh and Mukul Rohatgi) say absolute stays quo has been maintained re cutting of trees. @TheQuint

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves earlier informed the judges that many of the transplanted trees had died, contesting the authorities' contention that everything was going fine. @TheQuint

Some of the environmental activists are arguing that the authorities are planning to cut trees in a different part of #AareyForest , beyond the 33 hectares area where the metro car shed is to be constructed.

They have asked for the court to prevent this as well. @TheQuint

Mehta and Rohatgi strongly contest this, saying there is no other project to cut trees anywhere else, and that the petitioners haven't raised this in their applications anyway. @TheQuint

COURT ORDER in #AareyForest matters:

- Next hearing on15 November, authorities bto submit reports by then.
- Stay on cutting of trees to continue till then.
- BUT no stay on other activities beyond tree-felling, including on metro project
@TheQuint

Some confusion over whether stay on tree felling applies beyond the 33 hectare area.
Colin Gonsalves' team says that further to undertaking by Solicitor General, no trees will be cut in whole of the 1280 hectares of #Aarey land.
Will need to wait for copy of order to be sure.

#Aarey Case UPDATE:

It's confirmed that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta has put a statement on record saying that no trees will be cut even in the areas not covered by the Metro project.
@TheQuint

@TheQuint And the Metro Corporation also has to provide an affidavit on the survival rate of transplanted trees, as well as details of the trees planted over the last two years.
@TheQuint

Order link: sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2…