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Tree Act will have rules after 30 years......Manasi Saraf-Joshi
The Bombay High Court has given the government six months to frame rules in The Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Preservation of Trees Act 1975.
A two-member bench comprising justices Bilal Nazki and AP Deshpande on April 9 issued the directive, following a public interest litigation filed by two activists from Pune — Vinod Jain and MajGen (retd) SCN Jatar.
The judges considered another petition by city activist Ajay Vaishampayan while issuing the directive. They were surprised to know that the 30-year-old Act did not have proper rules.
The petitioners had pointed out that it was difficult to enforce or implement the Act because it talked only about provisions without having proper rules. It did not clearly mention the authority whose permission was needed to cut trees.
Jatar said there was a contradiction in the municipal commissioner’s position because as a chairman of the Tree Authority he was supposed to protect trees and as civic commissioner give permission to cut trees. The court, however, said that the commissioner as chairman had just one vote out of 30 votes.
Pune municipal corporation’s garden superintendent Yeshwant Khaire said the fines mentioned in the Act were not uniform across the state. “A person in Pune has to pay Rs5,000 as deposit if he wants to cut a tree; but it is different in other cities,” he said.
The court has told the government that the fine should be uniform across the state.
Before framing the rules, the government should take peoples’ opinions, the petitioners said.
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