Maintaining the same stand of not receiving a contempt notice from the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Art of Living (AOL) spokesperson Jaideep Nath said it is a factually incorrect statement, adding, the case should be discussed on its merits.
Nath said one should get down to the core facts of the case and debate in the court for the truth to prevail.
"This is a factually incorrect statement. There is no contempt that has been issued right now. In fact, we would be happy if the case is discussed on its merit and technical grounds, rather than moving such frivolous applications," Nath told ANI.
The AOL spokesperson further said that all the necessary permissions from the relevant departments had been sought well in time and then the preparations were started.
"The petition that has been filed, was first regarding the potential then subsequently the alleged damage that this event may have caused to the Yamuna floodplain and that is what is the core issue which is currently been taken up at the NGT," he said.
Earlier yesterday, the AOL denied receiving a contempt notice from the NGT.
"No notice whatsoever has been issued by the NGT to AOL or Sri Sri. Media reports to the contrary are absolutely false and baseless," the AOL said in a statement.
Earlier, it was reported that the green tribunal had issued a contempt of court notice to Sri Sri for his April 18 statement that says, "If, at all, any fine has to be levied, it should be levied on the Central and state governments and the NGT itself, for giving the permission. If the Yamuna was so fragile and pure, they should have stopped the World Culture Festival".
A contempt plea against Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was moved in the NGT on Wednesday by Manoj Mishra.
The statement further read, "This is the second time we have been misrepresented. Last time as well the court never even once mentioned the name of Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as reported by some media. In fact, the court turned down every request put up by petitioner Manoj Mishra."
The AOL called upon the media houses that have wrongly reported that "a contempt notice has been issued to produce the Order (of the Hon'ble NGT) on the basis of which they have published such a statement".
It is alleged that the AOL event on March 11-13, 2016, had badly damaged the environment. The NGT had imposed an interim environment compensation of Rs 5 crore on the AOL till the exact cost of the damage was ascertained.
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