A significant judgment by the Supreme Court has brought closure to a decade-long media trial and false allegations surrounding The Art of Living’s prestigious 2016 World Culture Festival. The Court has set aside the judgment of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), along with all consequential interim actions.
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Importantly, the Supreme Court held that the material on record has proved that the Art Of Livings World Culture Festival did no damage to the Yamuna floodplains.
The Court further held that The Art of Living is entitled to a full refund of the ₹5 crore deposited. The deposit was wrongly touted as a “fine”, with the intention to tarnish the organisations image. The World Culture Festival 2016 was a landmark global event that witnessed participation from over 155 countries and 3.5 million on ground attendees. The event was chaired by Justice R. C. Lahoti, the former Chief Justice of India, also the late Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations, would have co chaired the event had he not unfortunately passed away a month before the event.
Following the judgment, an official spokesperson for The Art of Living said: “The ridiculous attitude of certain vested interests in falsely accusing an organisation, that has been working to protect the environment, has now been exposed.”
