Punjab Govt's policy allowing construction in Shivalik-Kandi area challenged
Petitioner cites threat to ecology; High Court to examine maintainability in January
A citizens’ panel has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the Punjab Government’s newly notified “Policy for Approval, Regularisation of Low Impact Green Habitats (LIGH), 2025”, contending that it opens the door to construction and regularisation of illegal structures in the ecologically fragile Shivalik-Kandi belt.
The Bench headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu fixed the matter for further hearing in January on the issue of maintainability.
The Bench was told that the issue was already pending before the National Green Tribunal. The Bench expressed disinclination to entertain parallel proceedings, but senior advocate RS Bains contended on the petitioners’ behalf that the tribunal did not have the power to interfere in the legality and validity of the notification. He said the tribunal could not declare a policy unconstitutional.
The writ petition before the Bench was filed by the Public Action Committee, a group comprising environmental experts, residents and social stakeholders, seeking quashing of the notification dated November 20, issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The petition was filed through advocate Shehbaz Thind and argued by senior advocate Bains.
The petition asserted that the impugned policy applied exclusively to districts in the Shivalik-Kandi region — described as Punjab’s last contiguous forest-bearing landscape and its primary ecological shield.
According to the petitioners, the forests and forest-influenced tracts of the Shivalik-Kandi belt regulated groundwater recharge, stabilised fragile hill slopes, moderate surface runoff and sustained air quality across downstream habitations and urban centres. Any fragmentation or reduction of the forest cover, the petition argued, would heighten risks of erosion, flooding, water stress and environmental degradation.
The petition challenged specific provisions of the LIGH policy that permit G+1 construction, paved access roads, hard surfacing and regularisation of existing illegal structures on land historically governed by the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900, and in areas de-notified under the PLPA only conditionally.
It was contended such permissions directly conflicted with binding directions of the Supreme Court, as well as clarifications issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, which mandate that even de-listed PLPA land must be treated as “forest” for the purposes of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
Terming the notification arbitrary, unconstitutional and a colourable exercise of power to legitimise illegal constructions, the petition sought an interim restraint on grant of LIGH approvals and a comprehensive scientific review of the Shivalik-Kandi belt before any construction activity was permitted.
