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‘Waiting for my retirement?’ CJI rejects Aravalli panel’s February deadline
The development assumes significance as the fresh exercise to define the Aravallis was ordered by the Supreme Court
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Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Monday questioned whether the high-powered committee (HPC) constituted by the Supreme Court to arrive at a uniform definition of the Aravalli hills and range was waiting for him to retire, as the court rejected its plea for six months’ additional time and directed it to submit its final report by November 30.
“They should have clearly asked for a date after my retirement…appears they are waiting for my retirement. We are not going to allow this,” the CJI told additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati, who appeared for the Centre. CJI Kant demits office on February 9, 2027.
The bench, headed by the CJI and comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, directed the five-member panel headed by Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) director general Kanchan Devi to “work day and night” and made it clear that no further extension would be granted.
“The high-powered committee has sought an extension till February 28, 2027, with the first stroke of the pen. We reject this plea…The HPC is directed to work day and night and submit its final report by November 30, 2026. We make it clear that no further extension shall be granted,” said the bench in its order.
The court also asked the committee to submit interim reports on specific issues in the meantime so that urgent aspects of the dispute could be dealt with separately without waiting for the completion of the entire exercise.
The development assumes significance as the fresh exercise to define the Aravallis was ordered by the Supreme Court after it put on hold its own November 2025 decision accepting a controversial definition that environmentalists feared could leave large portions of the ecologically fragile range vulnerable to mining.
The earlier Centre-constituted committee proposed that a landform in the Aravalli districts with an elevation of 100 metres or more from the local relief would qualify as an Aravalli hill. Two or more such hills within 500 metres of each other would constitute the Aravalli Range.
Also Read:Why has the new definition of the Aravalli hills triggered a protest? What activists say
The definition triggered concerns that an elevation-based criterion could exclude several lower hills and hillocks that form part of the wider ecological landscape. The Supreme Court subsequently took suo motu cognisance of the controversy and, on December 29, 2025, kept its earlier order in abeyance. It also directed that no fresh mining permission or renewal of existing leases be granted pending the fresh exercise.
The HPC was constituted in May with a much broader mandate to examine the Aravalli landscape scientifically and recommend a uniform definition while assessing the ecological and other consequences of mining and development.
In an interim report submitted on August 31, the committee said its work demonstrated that the Aravallis could not be adequately understood through a single terrain-based or elevation criterion. It said it was examining spatial, ecological, geological, hydrological, biodiversity, socio-economic and stakeholder evidence.
The panel said field visits and stakeholder interactions raised issues concerning ecosystem health, land-use change, groundwater systems, biodiversity, mining-induced vulnerability and landscape connectivity.
It also said the Aravalli should be viewed as a connected landscape encompassing forests, protected areas, sacred sites, Orans and traditional pastures, wetlands, critical catchments and groundwater recharge areas, among other ecologically significant features.
The committee sought time until February 28, 2027, saying its work required additional datasets, field validation, specialised analytical capabilities and expert inputs.
The HPC comprises Kanchan Devi, former MoEFCC joint secretary Brij Mohan Singh Rathore, former Delhi University botany professor Ashok K Bhatnagar, former Forest Survey of India director general Subhash Ashutosh and former Geological Survey of India director Rajendra Kumar Sharma. Professors Jagdish Krishnaswamy and Laxmikant Sharma are special invitees.
The court will consider the matter next on December 2, by then the committee is expected to have submitted its final report and, where necessary, issue-specific interim reports.
