Aravalli Enforcement Vacuum During Judicial Abeyance
I. Procedural Background
On 29 December 2025, the Supreme Court of India, acting suo motu, placed its earlier directions issued in November 2025 concerning the application of the 100-metre hill definition in the Aravalli region in abeyance and constituted a High-Powered Expert Committee to reassess scientific and regulatory parameters.
The order did not adjudicate the merits of the 100-metre criterion, rendered the earlier directions temporarily non-operative, retained existing statutory frameworks, and preserved the matter as sub judice.
The Committee functions as a fact-finding and advisory body without adjudicatory powers.
II. Regulatory Position During Abeyance
During the period of judicial abeyance, activities governed under mining, forest, and environmental statutes continue to be regulated by their respective legal frameworks. No interim judicial prohibition has been imposed on activities otherwise permissible under law.
Accordingly, regulatory outcomes during this period depend upon the accuracy, integrity, and enforcement capacity of existing statutory institutions, as periodically assessed in audit and annual reports issued by competent authorities, including the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
III. Hill Height Determination and Baseline Integrity
A. Measurement Method
The 100-metre criterion classifies landforms based on local relief measured from the base. In Indian surveying practice, such determination relies on the Lowest Contour Line (LCL) principle as maintained in pre-disturbance topographical records of the Survey of India.
B. Legal Relevance
The use of altered or post-disturbance ground levels for classification departs from established surveying methodology and raises questions of arbitrariness under Article 14. Baseline integrity is therefore a material issue for scientific reassessment during the present review.
IV. Geological Stability and Seismic Context
The Geological Survey of India is the statutory authority responsible for geological and seismic assessment. The Delhi–NCR region falls within Seismic Zone IV, and the Aravalli system forms part of the Aravalli Craton, a recognised geological structure.
Indian environmental jurisprudence incorporates the Precautionary Principle within Article 21. Where competent authorities are unable to conclusively certify the absence of geological risk, uncertainty itself becomes a relevant factor warranting regulatory scrutiny.
V. Forest Survey of India Data and Groundwater Recharge
Landform assessments issued by the Forest Survey of India (December 2025) indicate that only a limited proportion of mapped Aravalli landforms exceed 100 metres in height, with lower ridges and pediments constituting the dominant geomorphology.
Hydrogeological assessments by statutory groundwater authorities recognise these formations as critical recharge zones within hard-rock aquifer systems. Permanent impairment of such systems engages the doctrine of inter-generational equity recognised under Article 21.
VI. Transboundary Aquifers and Public Trust Doctrine
Groundwater systems do not conform to administrative boundaries. Recharge areas located within one State may sustain aquifers extending into another.
Under the Public Trust Doctrine, the State holds natural resources in trusteeship and bears a duty to prevent irreversible depletion affecting present and future users, irrespective of surface land-use classification.
VII. Archaeological Assets
The Aravalli region includes documented open-air Palaeolithic archaeological sites, including Mangar Bani, identified through official surveys of the Archaeological Survey of India.
Under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, destruction of archaeological context constitutes irreversible loss. Once material evidence is destroyed, restoration is not legally recognised, meeting the threshold of irreparable injury.
VIII. Zoological Significance (Material Consideration)
Records maintained by State forest and wildlife authorities during 2025–26 indicate continuous leopard occupancy across forest and scrub habitats of the Gurgaon–Faridabad Aravalli belt, including areas outside notified protected zones.
Statutory and peer-reviewed records further identify species dependent on scrub forests, rocky outcrops, and pediments below the 100-metre threshold, including Caracal , Hyaena , Mellivora capensis, and Canis lupus pallipes. Habitat alteration affecting such species engages constitutional environmental protections irrespective of land classification.
IX. Medicinal and Relic Forest Species (Material Consideration)
Several medicinal and relic forest species occur primarily on lower slopes and rocky landforms of the Aravallis.
Commiphora wightii (Guggul), listed as Critically Endangered and regulated under CITES Appendix II; Anogeissus pendula (Dhok), an endemic relic species forming non-restorable old-growth systems; and Boswellia serrata (Salai), recognised as a high conservation value species, collectively engage obligations under national biodiversity frameworks and Article 21.
X. Thermal and Desertification Context
Surface alteration from vegetated ridges to exposed or built surfaces alters local thermal characteristics and contributes to land degradation dynamics. India’s obligations under the UN Convention to Combat Desertification require protection of ecological systems that mitigate such processes.
XI. Mining Regulation Framework
Statutory permissions issued under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, as amended in 2023, including Section 11B, remain subject to constitutional limitations. Regulatory permission does not override environmental safeguards embedded in Article 21.
XII. International Law and Constitutional Interpretation
India is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity, CITES, and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. Under the doctrine of monism, international environmental obligations may inform constitutional interpretation where fundamental rights are engaged.
XIII. Scope of High-Powered Expert Committee Review
A comprehensive reassessment may require examination of topographical records, geological assessments, forest landform data, wildlife inventories, archaeological site records, groundwater aquifer maps, and treaty compliance submissions. Scientific review cannot be confined to elevation criteria alone.
XIV. Closing Statement (For Record)
This document records the institutional and legal dimensions relevant to the Aravalli region during the period of judicial abeyance.
No finding of illegality or culpability is asserted.
All determinations remain within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India and the High-Powered Expert Committee.
Aravalli hill The 100-Metre Blind Spot: How a Provisional Definition Puts North India’s Water at Risk https://truthwave.in/aravalli-100-metre-rule-climate-risk/