New Delhi: In a scathing observation, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Monday pulled up the high-powered committee (HPC) constituted by the Supreme Court to finalise a uniform definition of the Aravalli hills and range, questioning the delay.
Rejecting the HPC’s plea for six months’ additional time, CJI Kant asked whether they were waiting for him to retire.
The panel was directed 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 will step down on February 9, 2027.
The CJI-headed bench, also 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.
“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 top court asked the committee to submit interim reports on specific issues, so that urgent aspects of the dispute could be dealt with separately.
Kanchan Devi apart, the HPC also includes 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 matter will next be heard on December 2, after the final report is submitted.
The Supreme Court ordered the fresh exercise to define the Aravallis after putting 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 committee, constituted by the Central government, had proposed that a landform in the Aravalli districts with an elevation of 100 metres or more from the local relief will qualify as an Aravalli hill. Two or more such hills within 500 metres of each other will constitute the Aravalli Range.
That sparked concerns that an elevation-based criterion could exclude several lower hills and hillocks.