Lucknow, Jan 6 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has expressed serious displeasure over the lack of a proper response and non-compliance of its previous order and summoned the principal secretary (forest), the chief conservator of forests and the divisional forest officer of Lucknow on January 13.
The Lucknow bench of the high court has also imposed a cost of Rs 40,000 on the Uttar Pradesh government.
A bench of Justices Rajan Roy and A K Chaudhary passed the order on Monday while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) matter filed by lawyer Jayant Singh Tomar in 2013. The petition has raised issues related to the mango belt of Uttar Pradesh and the illegal felling of mango trees.
The court had passed an order in January 2014, asking for certain information from the state government.
As the information was not forthcoming, the court imposed a cost of Rs 15,000 on the government during a hearing on November 12, 2025.
While hearing the petition on Monday, the court again found that its order was not fully complied with.
The counsel for the Uttar Pradesh government could not inform the court as to whether the cost imposed by the previous order was paid.
Senior advocate Gaurav Mehrotra, representing the petitioner in the court, said the issues of geo-tagging of trees and tree felling were raised in the January 2014 order. The government counsel responded that geo-tagging has been taking place since 2018.
The court has also summoned the principal secretary of the horticulture department for failing to provide written instructions in this regard. PTI COR NAV RC
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.