Yamuna Floodplain Damage: SC Sets Aside NGT Order Against Art Of Living, Orders Refund Of ₹5 Crore Fine

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Saturday set aside an order passed by the National Green Tribunal in 2017, holding Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living Foundation responsible for the damage caused to the Yamuna floodplains due to its World Culture Festival in 2016.

The judgment was delivered by a bench comprising Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and N K Singh. The judgment came on an appeal filed by Vyakti Vikas Kendra India, associated with the Art of Living Foundation.

The apex court directed the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to refund the Rs 5 crore environmental compensation deposited by the foundation. The detailed order will be uploaded later in the day.

The World Culture Festival was held from March 11 to 13, 2016, on the Yamuna floodplains in Delhi. The ₹5 crore was deposited pursuant to an interim order passed by the NGT in March 2016, shortly before the three-day festival was scheduled to begin.

The tribunal allowed the event to proceed while directing the foundation to deposit the amount as environmental compensation. The tribunal had also directed that the amount would be adjusted against the compensation ultimately determined after assessing the environmental damage.
The bench said there is no doubt in the proposition that the polluter must pay and must be held absolutely liable for environmental degradation caused by it.

The bench said the alleged person must be a "polluter" before being held absolutely liable in law, and no doubt, if this link is established, no excuse matters. However, the principle cannot be invoked unless the degradation is attributable to the alleged person, it noted.

"In the present case, the causal link has not been established by any standard. In fact, there is ample material on record to show that the event site was already in a dilapidated condition prior to its handing over to the appellant," said the bench.

The bench said the material on record actually proves that damage, if any, cannot be attributed to the appellant. It is a different matter that the tribunal overlooked the exculpatory material, it added.

The bench said the tribunal completely altered the character of the dispute before it, converting it into a proceeding for fresh development of the Yamuna floodplain and, in doing so, it burdened the appellant to bear the expenses of such development activity. Effectively, the tribunal burdened the appellant with the task of developing something that it never destroyed, it added.

The bench noted that a committee, constituted by government officials, inspected the event site and reported that the site where the event in question was held was fully covered with grass and portions thereof were under water. It also reported that there was no debris at the site and no significant wetland/water body was found in the area allotted for the event, noted the bench.

“This committee examined the google earth images of the event site taken before and after the event, and reported that there was not much difference in the condition of the area before and after the event”, it said.

The bench said the third report, filed by a committee, effectively nullified the allegations of damage and removed the taint of causing damage/degradation from the event organised by the appellant.

"However, the Tribunal rejected this report on the ground that the committee was not supposed to report on damage, and was only tasked to propose an action plan. In doing so, the facts reported by the committee were neither challenged nor disproved," it noted.

The bench said the tribunal chose to focus on the fact that the committee had exceeded its domain and needlessly reported about the absence of any damage at the site.

"We cannot approve of the approach adopted by the Tribunal. As a neutral fact-finding body, the Tribunal ought to have taken all relevant material into consideration for deciding the liability of the appellant," it said.

"The appellant is entitled to refund of the amount of Rs. 5 crores deposited by it to DDA, in compliance of the Tribunal’s order dated 09.03.2016. The same shall be refunded by DDA within four weeks from today," it added.

The bench said the tribunal ought to have questioned how the satellite image presented a flowery picture of the floodplain; however, it did not.

In fact, a huge amount of debris/construction material was removed by none other than the appellant, immediately after handing over of site, to make way for the event, it noted.

"In the face of such material, the committee’s description of the pre-event state of the floodplain, describing it as a green vista, is unreliable. In our opinion, the satellite image dated 05.09.2015 is not a reliable document, not only because it is generated from the internet, but also because it is in stark contrast with the entire surrounding material," said the bench.

Following the judgment, an official spokesperson for The Art of Living said: "The ridiculous attitude of certain vested interests in falsely accusing an organisation, that has been working to protect the environment, has now been exposed."

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