The Bombay high court on Friday paved the way for cluster redevelopment of ten societies,involving 18 buildings, to proceed by permitting the developer to transplant 177 trees as allowed by a tree authority in Thane last May.
The order came in an application filed by Peer Realty Pvt Ltd who sought the vacation of an interim stay granted last September by the HC earlier in a PIL filed by Rohit Joshi, a tree activist from Thane.
The plea by the developer through his lawyer Tejesh Dande said that since monsoon was set to arrive by June 15, there is excellent chance of survival of transplanted trees now and it needs to be done before the rains start.
The project was for redevelopment of a Maharashtra housing and area Development authority (MHADA)colony with 348 families.
The developer pointed out that the PIL had neither made it a party while seeking a stay on permissions that would directly effect it. The trees would not be cut but only transplanted said the developer.
But Joshi through advocate Ankit Kulkarni submitted that the argued that the the tree authority had not followed proper procedures and also questioned the transplantation site
The developer in turn argued that Joshi had not objected about the project or the transplantion proposal before the tree authority and nor had anyone else including any environment organization.
The HC bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and Justice K K Tated in a detailed order questioning the PIL petitioner, allowed the developer to proceed with the transplantation.