New Delhi: After a show of bravado, Art of Living chief Sri Sri Ravi Shankar bowed before the NGT and agreed to comply with its order to pay the interim compensation of Rs 5 crore for environmental damage to the Yamuna flood plains due to the World Culture Festival.
The National Green Tribunal court asked the foundation to pay Rs 25 lakh on Friday while giving them three weeks to pay the remaining Rs 4.75 crore.
The NGT also took strong exception to Ravi Shankar’s defiance when he said he would rather “go to jail than pay Rs 5 crore” and said: “When a man of his stature makes such statements, it hits the very rule of law. If anybody hurts the image of the tribunal, he will be taken to rule of law (sic).”
Rs 5 crore is not a penalty, says NGT
Art of Living chief Sri Sri Ravi Shankar bowed before the NGT and agreed to comply with its order to pay the interim compensation of Rs 5 crore.
The AoL counsel, on the other hand, tried to blame the media, claiming that the “guru’s remarks were made in a different context and they had no intent to disregard the conditions imposed by the Tribunal”.
To the foundation’s plea before the NGT bench, headed by chairperson Swatanter Kumar, that they were a charitable organisation and should be given more time to generate Rs 5 crore, the court asked them to pay Rs 25 lakh immediately, failing which the Rs 2.5 crore sanctioned to it by the ministry of culture would be attached.
The Bench, however, clarified that the amount of Rs 5 crore be treated as “environmental compensation, and not as penalty”. “We are only concerned with compliance of its (the court’s) directions with regard to the pollution of the river Yamuna during the course of the event.”
“Certainly, adherence to the rule of law is the duty not only of the government but of every citizen of the country. The rule of law is the very foundation of the administration of justice system,” the bench said, adding, “If the rule of law is undermined, it raises a challenge not only for the justice delivery system, but even to the capability of the government to enforce.”
