Meghalaya High Court: In a public interest litigation petition to prevent illegal or irregular felling of trees in the Lower New Colony area, Laitumkhra, Shillong, the Division Bench of Chief Justice IP Mukerji and W. Diengdoh, J. stated that no tree should be cut unless it is imminently dangerous and would cause substantial damage if allowed to stand. The Bench issued directions for the manner/ process to be opted while dealing with such applications.
Vide previous order dated 07-02-2025, the Court directed the State respondents to file an affidavit by 28-02-2025 disclosing all pending applications for felling trees in the said region. It was directed that those applications should be proceeded in accordance with the Meghalaya Tree (Preservation) Act, 1976 and the Meghalaya Tree (Preservation) Rules, 1976. The decision in each of these applications was also directed to be disclosed in the affidavit, along with the decisions already made allowing felling of trees but not executed.
Perusing the said affidavit, the Court noted that all the applications were pending consideration. The Court noted that the number of trees requested to be felled in an application ranged from 2 to 89 for the reason stating “tree posing danger to human life”.
The Court issued the following directions to process the application:
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State to instruct every applicant to append as an annexure to the form, in explanation of the reason: “has become dangerous to life and property”, and show details how the tree has become dangerous to life and property.
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The State respondents shall thereafter inspect the property and the tree or trees standing thereon.
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If a tree “has become dangerous to life and property”, the State should try to preserve it by taking appropriate measures like clipping the trunk and branches or chopping a part of it and retaining the rest. Only if that does not suffice, a decision will be taken to cut the tree.
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Only in case of a tree which is so dangerously situated that danger or damage is imminent, should the State fell the tree immediately.
[Geraldine G. Shabong v. State of Meghalaya, 2025 SCC OnLine Megh 160, decided on: 05-03-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Petitioner: Mr. S. Khyriem, Adv with Mr. B. Snaitang, Adv
For the Respondents: Ms. R. Colney, GA
