New Delhi. The Supreme Court has expressed displeasure over the continuous concealment by the authorities of the role of Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena in the cutting of trees in the Ridge area. The apex court on Friday asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) whether the decision to cut the trees was taken on the basis of the verbal permission of the Lieutenant Governor or the agency took the decision independently.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjwal Bhuiyan said that the Lieutenant Governor did not exercise full discretion in allowing the cutting of trees. The bench said that it should have been informed on the first day of the hearing that the Lieutenant Governor had given instructions to cut the trees. The apex court was hearing a contempt case against the DDA Vice Chairman in the matter of cutting 1,100 trees in the Ridge area for a road widening project.

The court warned

The court warned the Delhi Police not to harass Bindu Kapuria, who had filed a petition against the DDA over illegal felling of trees. The bench said, 'We want to make it clear to all the officers that no one will try to harass the petitioner.'

Asked Delhi government- how will the cost of illegal felling of trees be compensated

While hearing a case related to felling of trees in the Ridge area, the Supreme Court asked the Delhi government how it would compensate for the illegal felling of trees. The apex court also asked the Delhi government to find out how many such illegal permissions have been given for felling of trees in the last five years and record those permissions. The court also issued a notice to the contractor who did the tree felling and asked him to tell on whose instructions he did this work.