World Culture Festival: NGT rejects AOL’s plea to pay compensation by bank guarantee

The principal bench fined the foundation Rs 5,000 for filing so many applications and directed it to pay the balance amount within a week.

The Tribunal said a grant the foundation had received from the Union Ministry of Culture — worth Rs 2.25 crore — prior to the World Culture Festival would also be added to the amount payable by AOL.

READ: Art of Living moves NGT to form fresh panel to inspect site

On March 9, the NGT had asked the Foundation to pay an initial environmental compensation fee of Rs 5 crore after days of successive hearings. A day later, AOL’s counsel urged the NGT’s principal bench to accept an amount of Rs 25 lakh and assured them that the remaining amount would be paid within three weeks.

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However, the Tribunal told the Foundation that if the amount was not paid within the promised time, then the grant from the Union Culture Ministry would be attached to the balance amount.

At a hearing on April 4, the counsel for the Foundation told the bench that it would submit a bank guarantee in place of the balance amount. On April 22, the bench said it would reserve its judgment on the issue. The tribunal dismissed the application entirely during Tuesday’s hearing.

READ: Art of Living moves NGT to form fresh panel to inspect site

NGT asks panel to conduct final inspection

On Monday, the AOL had moved the Tribunal to change the expert committee constituted by it to inspect the venue. AOL, in a statement, said the committee, which inspected the site before the event, was “biased”. It had also said the figure the committee arrived at in its report — Rs 120 crore — was “arbitrary”.

Earlier, the committee had been stopped from inspecting the site by AOL volunteers on the grounds that the Foundation had not officially handed over the land. The NGT Tuesday agreed to include more members in the committee, but only if AOL withdrew its application calling the committee ‘biased’. However, AOL later decided not to withdraw its application.

The Tribunal has directed the original committee to conduct a final inspection by June 7 and submit its report, with a figure for the final compensation fee. The next hearing is on July 4.

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