Chandigarh, Feb 23: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has scheduled an urgent hearing for Tuesday regarding a public interest litigation (PIL) that claims 961 fully grown trees are being uprooted in Mohali’s Sector 69. The matter was brought before the court on Monday, with the petitioner seeking immediate intervention to preserve the area as a forest.
The Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry, questioned the specific public cause during the initial proceedings. Counsel for the petitioner asserted that heavy earth-moving machinery has already been deployed to the site, raising fears that the trees will be cleared before the court can intervene.
“There are 961 fully grown trees in Sector 69 of Mohali and we want to preserve it as a forest,” the counsel declared. He maintained that interim protection is necessary to ensure the site remains untouched. To support the claim, the petitioner provided photographs allegedly showing machinery at the location.
While the Bench expressed reservations regarding the timing and evidentiary value of the photographs, the counsel affirmed that the images were captured on February 18. Chief Justice Nagu noted that a general ban on tree felling across Punjab and Haryana is already in place, which the petitioner could rely upon for protection.
The court’s decision to list the case for February 24 follows a previous December directive that prohibited the axing of trees without explicit judicial permission. That order originated from petitions challenging infrastructure projects by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) that involved the removal of mature trees on public land.
