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MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Friday said the Tree Authority 's powers were being misused. A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Riyaz Chagla made the observations while hearing PILs filed by activists Zoru Bathena and Rohit Joshi over the tree cutting powers in Mumbai and Thane cities respectively.

Bathena has, in a new plea, challenged the provisions of the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act which empowers the municipal commissioner to sanction felling of up to 25 trees, while for pleas to cut more than 25 trees goes to the Tree Authority.

“The Tree Authority's powers are being misused. Developers are bifurcating their applications to cut trees so that it remains below 25,” remarked Justice Oka during the hearing. Last month, the high court had restrained the municipal commissioners of Mumbai and Thane from taking any decision on felling of trees, unless it was an emergency case.

On their part, both the Maharashtra government and the BMC justified the special powers given to the civic chief as part of its "Ease of Doing Business" policy. The state in its affidavit said that since the decisions of the Tree Authority was time consuming, and small projects were suffering, it had decided to empower the civic chief to take a decision where application was for cutting 25 or lesser trees. The BMC said that the challenge to the fact that the municipal commissioner was not a horticulturist was without basis. It was not expected of the civic chief to be an expert in every field as he deals with a wide range of issues from sewerage to building construction, from water treatment and medical healthcare to fire fighting and running of abattoirs, schools.

Builders too have filed intervention applications as there MahaRERA approved construction projects were getting delayed. The bench asked the Thane Municipal Corporation to inform it if it was planning to set up a new tree panel as per rules. The court has scheduled further hearing on April 3.

