The main legal point established in the judgment is that the Guidelines for Pruning of Trees, framed under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Rules, 1996, were in conflict with the DPT Act, and were set aside by the court. The court ruled that no pruning of trees would be permitted in Delhi except in accordance with the DPT Act, allowing the respondents to frame requisite guidelines and/or rules.

JUDGMENT

Najmi Waziri, J. (Oral)

The hearing has been conducted through hybrid mode (physical and virtual hearing).

1. At joint request, the petition is taken up for disposal.

2. This writ petition impugns the order dated 19.01.2023 passed by the National Green Tribunal (`NGT') in Original Application No. 911/2022. Mr. Vivek Sibal, the learned Senior Advocate for the petitioners seeks directions apropos the procedure adopted for pruning of trees under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994 (`DPT Act') and the Guidelines for Pruning of Trees dated 01.10.2019 (`Guidelines'). The latter have been framed under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Rules, 1996.

3. He submits that the impugned order permitting pruning of trees, on the basis of the Guidelines is erroneous because such pruning is permitted without prior approval of and without even a site inspection or assessment of the tree(s) concerned by the relevant authority namely, the Tree Officer/Deputy Conservator of Forests (`DCF'). The Guidelines and the impugned order permit private parties/entities to prune trees even on land owned by the government (i.e. the MCD, DDA and PWD).

4. He refers to the judgment dated 16.03.2017 passed by the NGT (Western Zone) Bench, Pune in Mr. Pradeep Indulkar vs. Municipal Corporation for the City of Thane and Ors. in Application No. 157/2016 which has analysed a similar provision of law, regarding pruning of trees, under The Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation Of Trees Act, 1975, and has discussed the issue as under:

"...

13. The plants are thus inalienable component of `environment'. It is well known that plants, particularly, the trees, contribute generously to the environment in terms of maintaining delicate environmental balance, particularly, in terms of ambient air quality, and provide succor and shelter to other living creatures. The preamble to the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975, reveals that the Act has been enacted to make better provisions for trees in the urban areas in the State by regulating felling of trees and providing for plantation of adequate number of new trees in those areas. The Act recognizes need for making better provisions for protection and Preservation of trees in the urban areas in the State in the face of growing urbanization and industrialization accompanied with indiscriminate felling of large number of trees in the urban areas. Thus, the object of this enactment to protect and preserve trees needs to be kept in mind while interpreting its provisions. It is correct that `preservation of trees' as per Section 2(c) of the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975, includes `other operations of survival and propagation of trees' and term "trimming or pruning" is nowhere defined in the said Act, but going by the Dictionary meaning `trimming/pruning' involves `cutting' as can be seen from the relevant text in the Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd Edition, quoted hereunder:

Prune: verb [with obj] trim a tree, shrub, or bush) by cutting away dead or overgrown branches or stems, especially to increase fruitfulness and growth. Cut away (a branch or stem) in this way prune back the branches. Reduce the extent of (something) by removing superfluous or unwanted parts: the workforce was pruned. Remove (superfluous or unwanted parts) from something: Eliot deliberately pruned away details. Trim: verb (trim, trimming, trimmed) [with obj] 1. Make (something) neat or of the required size or form by cutting away irregular or unwanted parts;

14. Section 2(c) of the said Act defines the phrase to `fell a tree' in the following words: Section 2..........(c) "to fell a tree" includes burning or cutting or [in any way damaging a tree;] On summarizing this definition, one can easily perceive that any act of damaging a tree amounts to felling of a tree. If trimming/pruning of a tree is done without taking a decision as to what wanted and unwanted p