Art of Living, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar invite ‘contempt of court’

Is the Art of Living and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar guilty of contempt of court? A plain reading of Sri Sri’s somewhat intemperate outburst on a matter that is still sub judice clearly took the National Green Tribunal by surprise.

A stung bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar ticked off the Art of Living counsel on Thursday by commenting in open court, “You have no responsibility? Who gave you liberty to speak whatever you want to? It is shocking.”

He said the Foundation had obtained all necessary permissions, including from the green panel, and the event could have been stopped in the beginning itself if the Yamuna was so “fragile and pure”.

The expert committee had told the NGT that a whopping ₹42.02 crore would be required to restore the floodplains. It suggested that there would be two components of rehabilitation plan — physical and biological, and they would cost ₹28.73 crore and ₹13.29 crore respectively, besides additional ancillary expenses.

Sri Sri had on the Art of Living website made the following points against the NGT and the expert committee constituted by it to assess the damage caused to the Yamuna floodplains by the massive, World Culture Festival hosted by Art of Living and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi among others.

AOL had earlier petitioned for reconstituting the expert committee. And, while one of the petitioners Manoj Mishra indicated that he was inclined to move a contempt of court petition, knowledgeable circles believe that the central government has been nudging the NGT and DDA to settle the issue.

Irked by the expert committee saying in its report that it would possibly cost ₹42 crore to eventually repair the damage done by the massive construction work done on the floodplains, Sri Sri had shared this message on Facebook as well as on the Art of Living website:

• I invite all honest environmentalists to study the Art of Living's World Culture Festival and unveil the truth. Those who say the Art of Living is irresponsible simply don't know us or have gained a sense of humor!
• The NGT can never get over the blot it has brought on itself by delaying natural justice to the Art of Living and allowing its own committee to malign the law-abiding organization in the media.
• If at all any fine has to be levied, it should be levied on the Central and State Governments and the NGT itself for giving the permission. If the Yamuna was so fertile, fragile and pure, they should have stopped World Culture Festival at the very beginning.
• The silence of the so-called experts on the debris being dumped there and permanent structures coming around exposes their mala fide intentions.
• Over and above this, the closeness of the petitioner to the committee raises serious questions for which the Art of Living has filed a bias application, which is pending
• I have full faith in the Indian judiciary and am confident that our courts shall uphold the truth and penalize all responsible for the extreme defamation and harassment that has been meted out to the Art of Living.

The AOL legal team then added the following points :

• Can a body of experts ever be so unsure and unclear about its own findings? Clearly, what has happened here is that a committee is trying to support its earlier claims, which were irresponsibly made, admittedly in the absence of any study or examination on the ground. Since the scientific data could not support the finding of any environmental damage at all (leave alone to the extent of ₹120 crore) the committee is writing its report only to save its own face.
• Satellite images clearly show that the WCF has not caused any damage whatsoever to the Yamuna or its floodplains.

With PTI inputs