Meghalaya HC constitutes 5-member HPC over felling of ‘heritage’ trees

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJune 30, 2021

The Meghalaya High Court on Wednesday constituted a five-member High Powered Committee (HPC) to look into the recent felling of trees which are considered ‘heritage’ for implementation of the Shillong-Dawki road project.

While hearing a Public Interest Litigation on the matter, the division bench comprising the Chief Justice Biswanath Sommader and Justice HS Thangkhiew said the HPC has been constituted to look into the specific grievances as sought to be highlighted in the instant PIL.

“A comprehensive report shall be submitted by the HPC on the next date, after conducting a thorough and detailed enquiry with regard to the issue as highlighted and upon inspection of the actual site,” it said in the order.

The bench further stated that it will be open to the HPC to suggest before the Court viable means to resolve the highlighted issue raised in the instant PIL without compromising either with conservation of the trees (some of which are of considerable heritage) and environment on one hand and development/expansion of the road project on the other.

The five members of the HPC include Advocate General Amit Kumar, senior advocate, who is appearing in-person in the instant PIL, Kaustav Paul, a representative of the Forests & Environment Department, a representative of National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) and a member of general public, Jiwat Vaswani @ Bablu. The next hearing will be held after three weeks for further consideration of the Court.