New Chandigarh villages have come under a strict judicial order after the Punjab and Haryana High Court restrained all construction and development activity in the area. The court acted on a plea alleging unchecked commercial construction and possible official collusion in the ecologically sensitive Shivalik hills belt bordering Chandigarh.
What did the High Court order on New Chandigarh villages?
A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor passed the order in the case titled Sukhraj Singh Chahal versus State of Punjab. The court restrained all construction and development activities in at least 16 new Chandigarh villages. It also barred any further transfer or alienation of land in these villages.
The bench directed that no fresh mutation entries be recorded for six weeks, or until a fresh land survey is completed, whichever comes first. It further ordered the Punjab Chief Secretary to constitute a team of officers to determine the extent of forest land in these villages, based on records as they stood on the date the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 came into force.
The entire revenue record of the affected villages has been ordered to be kept in the safe custody of two senior officers heading this exercise, to prevent tampering while the survey is underway.
Why does the Shivalik Hills location matter?
The new Chandigarh villages named in the order sit in the foothills of the Shivalik hills, an area the court described as ecologically fragile. The Shivalik hills form the outer, lower range of the Himalayas and are known for loose soil that is prone to erosion once tree cover and natural vegetation are cleared for construction.
The High Court observed that preserving this belt is essential for protecting the region’s environment and ecology. It noted that commercial activity in the area has expanded even as the state has failed to complete a legally mandated exercise to identify how much land here actually qualifies as forest.
What triggered the Court’s intervention?
The Supreme Court had directed in 2014 that Punjab identify and demarcate forest land in the Shivalik foothills near Chandigarh. Twelve years on, the High Court noted, the state had still not carried out this exercise on its own.
The petitioners told the court that although some restaurants operating in the area had been shut down earlier, a large number of other commercial ventures continued to operate, with what they called massive construction being permitted nearby. They alleged that the State of Punjab was effectively colluding with violators of forest and land-use law, pointing out that several senior government officers had themselves acquired prime farmland close to Chandigarh, one of the most sought-after locations for urban development in the country.
The bench recorded that the state had, till date, not filed any affidavit reporting compliance with the Supreme Court’s 2014 directions. An affidavit had been filed by Forest Department officials, but the court held that this did not meet the Supreme Court’s specific requirement that the state government itself carry out the identification exercise. The court rejected the state’s reliance on separate affidavits filed by the Chief Secretary, holding that these too fell short of what had been directed.
“We deem it appropriate to restrain all construction/development activities in the said village(s),” the bench observed, according to court proceedings reported by legal news portal Bar and Bench on July 23, 2026.