National Green Tribunal (NGT) court has issued a notice to Spiritual Guru Sri Sri Ravishankar questioning as to why the contempt of court proceedings shouldn’t be initiated against him.
NGT in its notice to Sri Sri Ravishankar asked why should not contempt of court proceedings be initiated against him and has directed him to file a reply to it latest by May 25.
Earlier, in an interview, the spiritual teacher quoted that the fine imposed by the tribunal on the Art of Living foundation was politically motivated.
On March 9, the NGT had refused to prohibit the ‘World Culture Festival’ organised by AOL on the bank of Yamuna but slapped a fine of Rs. 5 crore on the foundation for damaging biodiversity of the ecologically sensitive Yamuna floodplains.
The counsel appearing on behalf of AOL asserted that no such statement was ever made by Ravi Shankar and that Mr Mishra was quoting a media report and that he himself has no evidence to substantiate the charge.
To this, the Chairperson of Green Bench specifically underlined that there was a difference between the statement being reported by media and being actually made by individual.
The Green Bench reserved its order on another petition filed by the AOL, seeking its nod to accept the fine, slapped by NGT, as bank guarantee instead of “payment of balance amount” Earlier, NGT had imposed a fine of Rs. 5 crore on ‘AOL for allegedly disturbing the ecologically fragile Yamuna plains for organising WCF. Of this fine, Rs. 25 lakh had already been paid by the AOL. The next hearing is slated for 25 May’.
