The Supreme Court on Monday said the expert committee to be constituted to define the Aravalli hills and ranges must consult domain experts and stakeholders so that the public at large is heard, even as it clarified that the panel can’t have too many people, making it unmanageable.
“We cannot have a composition of 30 people as it will become unmanageable. The committee must consult experts, and it should have 5-7 members. We will note it in the order," a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant said.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati submitted that the Central Empowered Committee and the amicus curiae senior counsel K Parameshwar have given common names to be included in the panel, which can be finalised.
Parameshwar said the expert committee must take into account the stakeholders as well so that the public is heard at large.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan wanted some experts to be included in the panel, but the ASG opposed his suggestion.
Noting that certain clarifications were needed regarding the definition of Aravalli Hills, it had earlier approved, the Supreme Court had on December 29 last year ordered to keep in abeyance its November 20, 2025 ruling that was based on a committee’s recommendations.
A bench led by CJI Surya Kant had decided to set up a new high-powered committee of domain experts to examine the environmental impact of the recommendations made by the earlier committee.
Taking note of “a significant outcry among environmentalists”, the top court had said that there was a need to resolve “critical ambiguities”, including whether the criteria of 100-metre elevation and the 500-metre gap between hills would strip a significant portion of the range of environmental protection.
The Centre had, in March this year, endorsed a high-powered expert committee (HPEC) led by Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education (ICFRE) Director General Kanchan Devi, proposed by the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee’s (CEC) to work out a uniform definition for the Aravalli Hills and Ranges.
The HPEC will start its work after getting a formal nod from the Supreme Court.
In an affidavit filed in the top court, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) said it has no objection to the CEC-proposed 11-member HPEC consisting of in-service and retired bureaucrats associated with the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Geological Survey of India (GSI), Survey of India and academicians.
Devi — a 1991 Indian Forest Service officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre — has over three decades of experience in forestry education and research, wildlife and forest policy and institutional leadership.
The other members recommended by the CEC to be on the HPEC were former FSI Director General Subhash Ashutosh, former GSI Director Rajendra Kumar Sharma, climate and energy policy expert Tejal Kanitkar, senior academician and life sciences researcher Jaya Parkash Yadav, senior geographer and scholar Tejbir Singh Rana, former Additional Surveyor General of India SV Singh, former Gujarat Principal Chief Conservator of Forests CN Pandey, and former Nagaland PCCF Dharmendra Prakash.
The CEC also recommended the names of noted author RN Mishra and ecological restoration practitioner and conservationist Vijay Dhasmana.
Maintaining that it did not have any additional names to propose at this stage for inclusion in the HPEC, the MoEFCC said aspects relating to the Aravalli Hills and Ranges required a comprehensive and analytical examination, including stakeholder consultation, by a group of domain experts in the relevant fields.
The top court had on February 26 asked the MoEFCC and other stakeholders to suggest domain experts’ names along with their profiles for setting up a panel which would define the Aravalli hills and ranges, and observed that only lawful mining would be allowed in the region.
