NGT to Sri Sri: pay the fine or we’ll cancel show

The National Green Tribunal on Thursday warned it could cancel the licence for the World Culture Festival organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Foundation if the ₹5-crore fine it levied is not paid by 5 pm on Friday.

Advocate Ritwick Dutta, representing the environmental activists campaigning against the Festival on the grounds that it was ecologically ruinous to the Yamuna flood plains, said the Foundation had been told to pay the fine or face consequences.

“In the event of non-payment of the fine, the Tribunal can cancel the licence for the programme,” he said. The three-day event gets under way on Friday.

However, Ravi Shankar remained defiant and said his organisation would not pay any fines as it had done no wrong. He was reported as saying he would face jail time rather than pay the fine imposed by the NGT on Wednesday. Dutta said the Foundation could either challenge the NGT order before the Supreme Court, or pay a fine for now without prejudice to its right to challenge the order.

Earlier, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur refused to act on a petition seeking a direction to stop the Festival.

“This preparation has been going on for long. Why have you come now? Why don’t you go to the NGT?” the bench asked the petitioner, Bharatiya Kisan Majdoor Samiti.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was earlier expected to skip the event citing security concerns, has confirmed his participation. However, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, who was to be the guest of honour, has reportedly opted out due to “substantial inadequacies in protocol and security arrangements”. The Delhi government, which too came under fire for granting permission for the Festival, claimed that the matter was not in its hands. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said it was the DDA that had given permission.

“Perhaps they could have selected a more environmentally suitable place,” he added.

Kejriwal said that in his “personal opinion,” the programme should be allowed to continue, setting aside the “controversies”. The Festival, he added, was good for the city’s tourism, and he would attend it.