New Delhi: The Patna High Court Tuesday allowed anticipatory bail to a man accused of violations under the Environment (Protection) Act (EPA), 1986, on the condition that he plant 500 saplings and take care of their upkeep for six months.
Justice Anjani Kumar Sharan allowed the bail application of Radhe Sharma, who had approached the court apprehending his arrest in a mining case.
Sharma is facing charges for offences punishable under the Bihar Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1972, and is alleged to have breached an environment protection certificate issued under Section 15 of the EPA.
Section 15, which provides for penalties for contravention of provisions of the act, prescribes imprisonment of up to five years or fine up to Rs 1 lakh, or both. Imprisonment of up to seven years is provided for if the offence continues beyond one year.
Advocate Naresh Dixit, appearing on behalf of the Bihar mines department, told the court that they had no objection to bail if the petitioner undertook to plant 500 trees, saplings for which would be provided free of cost by the district mines officer.
“He (accused) must also take care of their upkeep for six months,” said Dixit. As a word of caution, the advocate insisted that if Sharma did not plant the trees, the bail must be cancelled.
It was Sharma’s case that there was no violation on his part and that he had been falsely implicated on “omnibus” allegations (which are general in nature).
The court agreed with Dixit’s contention and said that if the trees were not planted, the bail would be cancelled.
“It is made clear that if the petitioner fails to abide by the terms and conditions as stated in paragraph five of this order, the mines department will be at liberty to file an application for cancellation of bail of the petitioner,” the court ordered.
The HC’s direction in Sharma’s case follows similar orders — directing planting of trees as a condition for bail — by the Delhi High Court on several occasions, by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a September 2020 judgment and by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in June 2020.
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‘Plant at least 10,000 trees’
The Delhi High Court has ordered the planting of thousands of fruit-bearing trees in the capital in a number of judgments.
In an order this year, Justice Najmi Waziri (since retired) ordered the planting of at least 10,000 trees to utilise over Rs 80 lakh worth of deposits in court recovered from defaulting litigants in different petitions.
In a case of an altercation between a lawyer and two policemen, the Delhi High Court directed the police personnel to plant 100 fruit-bearing trees in an attempt at sensitisation.
“Let 100 fruit-bearing trees like pilkhan, jamun, amaltas, goolar, kathal, badh, banyan, kadamb, kala siris, safed siris, papri and maulsari, etc. be planted at the Delhi Armed Police Parade Ground, Kingsway Camp, Delhi by the said police officers,” the court had said.
Similarly, Justice Jasmeet Singh had quashed an FIR in a criminal case on the condition that 10 trees each would be planted by the petitioners and photos would be filed to ensure upkeep for 10 years.
“The petitioners are stated to be belonging to poor strata of society. Hence, I refrain from imposing costs on the petitioners. However, I am of the view that the petitioners must do some social good,” the court had observed in June this year.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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