High Court Declines To Quash Case Against Bandra Resident For Unauthorisedly Felling Tamarind Tree Leading To Death Of Birds, Destruction Of Nests

The Bombay High Court refused to quash a case registered against a Bandra resident for allegedly ordering the felling of a Tamarind tree without prior permission, resulting in the death of several birds and the destruction of their eggs.

Justices AS Gadkari and Shyam Chandak dismissed the criminal application filed by Amit Dhutia observing that prima facie a case was made out against Dhutia. It said:

“In the backdrop, we are of the considered opinion that there is a prima facie case of the offence alleged in the impugned F.I.R. Hence, the Applicant cannot escape the prosecution from the said offence.”

The case was initiated on a complaint filed against Abhishek Soparkar Dhutia who was booked under Sections 428 and 429 of the IPC, along with Sections 9 and 51 of The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and Sections 8 and 21 of Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975 registered with Khar Police Station, Mumbai.

It was alleged he had affected the illegal chopping of a Tamarind tree located inside the compound of Petit School near the applicant's residential society building (Nector CHSL). It was alleged that such felling caused injury to birds and destruction of their nests.

It was further alleged that the police had found that branches of the trees which were cut along with the nests on them and the injured birds were thrown into the adjacent area of Petit School. About 40-50 injured birds were lying in the area of the School, hence they carried them for first aid to the animal clinic at Prabhadevi, it was submitted.

Advocate Girish Kulkarni, the applicant submitted that the Tamarind tree was located inside the compound wall of Petit School and not in the compound wall of the Applicant's building. As such there was no reason for the Applicant to get the said tree trimmed.

The Assistant Public Prosecutor AA Takalkar submitted that the FIR and witness statements indicated that the accused engaged the absconding co-accused 'Mari' to cut the branches of the tree without seeking any permission.

The court considered the statement of the building watchman which showed that on the state of the incident in 2014 the accused along with co-accused Sunny Bhutani showed the Tamarind Tree to the alleged cutters and ordered the watchman to allow the cutters the following day.

Upon hearing the arguments, the Court refused to quash the case and observed:

“The statements of the witnesses indicate that, immediately after cutting the tree, the watchman disclosed to the residents of the society that it was at the behest of the Applicant and the co-accused. The record indicates that, the eggs of birds were broken, fledglings were trapped by nets and some birds died in the incident.”

Case Title - Amit Satish Dhutia vs The State of Maharashtra

Case Number - CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. 369 OF 2016