India, Aug. 22 -- The Supreme Court on Saturday set aside an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directing Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living Foundation (AOL) to pay Rs.5 crore in environmental compensation for restoring the Yamuna floodplains, where the World Culture Festival was held in 2016. The court pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold such an event on the ecologically sensitive Yamuna floodplains and directed the landowning agency to refund the Rs.5 crore within four weeks.

Finding serious flaws in the reasoning and conclusion of the NGT's December 7, 2017 judgment, in a challenge by AOL's legal entity Vyakti Vikas Kendra, India, the top court said that the tribunal "burdened" AOL...