Reports of 'contempt of court notice' false: Art of Living

The Art of Living (AOL) on Thursday denied receiving a contempt notice from the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

"No notice whatsoever has been issued by the NGT to AOL or Sri Sri. Media reports to the contrary are absolutely false and baseless," the AOL said in a statement.

Earlier, it was reported that the green tribunal had issued a contempt of court notice to Sri Sri for his April 18 statement that "If, at all, any fine has to be levied, it should be levied on the Central and state governments and the NGT itself, for giving the permission. If the Yamuna was so fragile and pure, they should have stopped the World Culture Festival".

A contempt plea against Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was moved in the NGT on Wednesday by one Manoj Mishra.

The statement further added: "This is the second time we have been misrepresented. Last time as well the court never even once mentioned the name of Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as reported by some media. In fact, the court turned down every request put up by petitioner Manoj Mishra."

The AOL called upon the media houses that have wrongly reported that "a contempt notice has been issued to produce the Order (of the Hon'ble NGT) on the basis of which they have published such a statement".

It is alleged that the AOL event on March 11-13, 2016, had badly damaged the environment. The NGT had imposed an interim environment compensation of Rs 5 crore on the AOL till the exact cost of the damage was ascertained.