On Monday, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant expressed frustration over the high-powered committee (HPC) tasked with defining the Aravalli hills. He questioned whether the committee was delaying its work until his retirement. The Supreme Court denied the committee’s request for an additional six months and mandated that the final report be submitted by November 30.
The definition triggered concerns that an elevation-based criterion could exclude several lower hills and hillocks that form part of the wider ecological landscape. It also directed that no fresh mining permission or renewal of existing leases be granted pending the fresh exercise. 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 Supreme Court subsequently took suo motu cognisance of the controversy and, on December 29, 2025, kept its earlier order in abeyance. 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.
