Plant trees, Calcutta HC tells duo guilty of contempt

KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court has ordered two people, who had violated court orders, to plant "10 fruit-bearing trees" and donate Rs 25,000 each to an NGO that works for sustainable development.
On Thursday, Justice Shekhar B Saraf was hearing a contempt application filed by Hytone Merchants Pvt Ltd, a RBI-registered NBFC. The applicant had alleged that Prosenjit Das and Sajal Mondal had wilfully disobeyed orders passed by the court in September 2022 and March 2023.
The duo, it was alleged, had not identified and handed over scheduled properties mortgaged to the petitioner. The duo admitted to violating this order because of "compelling circumstances", for which they also apologised.
Justice Saraf, in his order, said: "To secure the ends of justice, I am of the view that the contemnors must do some social good for this court to countenance their act of contempt. Plantation of trees is one such exercise which this court would consider because trees, for as long as they are alive - be it decades or centuries - incessantly and silently provide multiple benefits to people."
Contemnors to donate Rs 25k each to NGO
Justice Shekhar B Saraf of the Calcutta High Court directed Prasanta Das and Sajal Mondal, the contemnors, to donate Rs 25,000 each to the NGO Gram Samridhi Foundation, which works towards sustainable rural development in Bengal villages, and plant 10 fruit-bearing trees each in plots identified by the foundation. This is not the first incident of the court ordering tree-plantation as punishment.
In 2021, the HC had ordered a real estate group to pay a penalty of Rs 40 crore and plant 100 trees after they had axed 62 trees. In 2019, the court had directed a claimant to plant 50 trees in lieu of imprisonment after finding the petitioner guilty of contempt. Justice Saraf, in his order, also asked Das and Mondal to contact Yogesh Kumar Goyal from the Gram Samridhi Foundation to work out the details. “I haven’t been contacted by them yet,” Goyal said on Sunday.