AOL: Notice to Centre, AAP govt on plea challenging NGT ambit

The National Green Tribunal today faced a piquant situation, prompting it to seek an answer to whether holding of religious and cultural events like the controversial cultural extravaganza organised last year by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living (AOL) can be prohibited by bringing it under the umbrella of the environment laws.
The NGT sought responses from the Centre and AAP government, as a supporter of the AoL event challenged the jurisdiction of the tribunal to decide the issue of damage to the floodplains of Yamuna caused by the holding of three-day cultural festival in March last year.
The move came days after the green panel directed an expert committee to quantify tentative cost of rejuvenating Yamuna riverbed, damaged due to the festival. The seven-member principal committee had said the AoL's World Culture Festival had "completely destroyed" the riverbed.

After some reluctance, a bench headed by NGT chief Justice Swatanter Kumar issued notices to AAP government, Delhi Development Authority, Art of Living (AoL) Foundation and Yamuna activist Manoj Misra while seeking their replies on whether it had the "scope and power" to decide the issue.
The plea moved by Prajanya Chowdhry, Anil Kapoor and Anand Mathur said cultural and religious rights form part of "Right To Live With Dignity" as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution and therefore cannot be banned or stopped.
Advocate Anirudh Sharma, who appeared for them, said the Constitution allowed individuals to hold events like World Culture Festival and participate and any restriction would deny them such rights.

The petitioners said the NGT, in its present composition, lacked jurisdiction to decide issues of fundamental rights and their width, scope and interpretation.

The petitioners, quoting several Articles of the Constitution, contended it was their right to organise and participate in events like Kumbh, Chhath and events like World Culture Festival subject to reasonable restriction and environmental concerns.
Referring to the inspection report of the expert
committee on the impact of AOL's festival, the petition said the panel nowhere suggested that the pollution of Yamuna was due to religious or cultural interference.
"Hence, while ensuring that all events which are conducted on the river bed are conducted in the most eco- friendly manner, it also has to be considered that citizens of India are bestowed with cultural and religious rights and the balance between the two has to be ensured and none can be effaced...

"The same is also in public interest as cultural, traditional and religious beliefs help in preservation of rivers and environment rather than damaging it. Hence, the same is also part of environmental concern and management and poses legal and substantial questions with respect to environmental concern and management," it said.
The plea claimed that successful conduct of the festival had brought Yamuna "back into limelight without causing any ostensible pollution to the river".
"From ancient times all major cultural and religious events in various parts of India have had deep connection to the rivers and particularly unquestionably sacred rivers like Ganga and Yamuna which also includes Kumbh, Magh Mela have not been responsible as the dominant or primary source of pollution in rivers," it said.

It claimed the primary source of pollution in rivers was industrialisation, "Western lifestyle and dependency on machines".