Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Monday rejected the Aravalli hills panel's request for an extension, directing it to submit its final report by November 30, 2026. The CJI questioned whether the high-powered committee was waiting for his retirement, which is scheduled for February 9, 2027. The bench, comprising CJI Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V Mohana, directed the five-member panel to work day and night without further extensions.

The development is significant as the Supreme Court ordered the fresh exercise to define the Aravallis after putting on hold its November 2025 decision. The earlier Centre-constituted committee proposed a definition based on elevation, which environmentalists feared could exclude lower hills. The Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the controversy and suspended its earlier order, directing that no fresh mining permissions be granted pending the fresh exercise.

The HPC, constituted in May, has a 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 stated that the Aravallis could not be adequately understood through a single terrain-based or elevation criterion. It examined spatial, ecological, geological, hydrological, biodiversity, socio-economic, and stakeholder evidence.

The panel highlighted issues concerning ecosystem health, land-use change, groundwater systems, biodiversity, mining-induced vulnerability, and landscape connectivity. It emphasized that the Aravalli should be viewed as a connected landscape encompassing forests, protected areas, sacred sites, Orans, traditional pastures, wetlands, critical catchments, and groundwater recharge areas. The committee sought time until February 28, 2027, citing the need for additional datasets, field validation, specialized analytical capabilities, and expert inputs.

The HPC includes 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 which time the committee is expected to have submitted its final report and, where necessary, issue-specific interim reports.