The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government and the MMRDA to not fell trees for its metro construction project in Mumbai till the Bombay High Court takes a decision on the plea of an activist against cutting of trees.

A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices S A Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna also returned to the high court the appeal of activist Rohit Joshi against an earlier order of the HC. Joshi had approached the apex court against the high court's order upholding the permission granted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) tree authority to Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) to fell trees for the Metro IV line project.