CHANDIGARH, July 24, 2026 — In a landmark intervention aimed at curbing urban encroachment into environmentally sensitive zones, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued an immediate, blanket ban on all construction and development activities across 16 villages in the Mohali district of Punjab.
The directive, passed by a Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor, marks a significant escalation in ongoing litigation regarding the environmental protection of the Shivalik foothills—an area considered vital for the ecological stability of the Chandigarh region.
The Core Mandate
The Court’s order, delivered in the matter of Sukhraj Singh Chahal v. State of Punjab, mandates a complete freeze on the transfer, alienation, and mutation of land within the specified villages for an initial period of six weeks. During this window, the Chief Secretary of Punjab has been ordered to constitute a specialized committee to audit old revenue records and determine the extent of forest land as it stood during the enactment of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
“We deem it appropriate to restrain all construction/development activities in the said village(s),” the Bench stated. “Any violation of this direction shall be treated as an act of contempt of court.”
Persistent Regulatory Failures
The judicial intervention follows years of mounting criticism regarding the state’s failure to implement a 2014 Supreme Court mandate. The apex court had previously directed the Punjab government to carry out a definitive demarcation of forest lands in the region. According to the High Court, those directives remain largely unfulfilled.
Petitioners argued that despite the court-ordered closure of specific restaurants and commercial outlets in the past, a broader ecosystem of commercialization has flourished. They alleged that the State of Punjab has been complicit in ignoring land-use violations, citing that various senior officials had allegedly secured prime farmland in these areas, turning the foothills into a high-value real estate hub.
Fragile Ecology at Stake
The High Court emphasized that the area, nestled in the foothills of the Shivalik range, represents a fragile ecological zone. The Bench remarked that the current trend of commercialization not only violates the mandate of the Punjab Land Preservation (PLP) Act, 1900, but also signals a systemic failure by the state to fulfill its primary duty of environmental conservation.
The affected villages—identified as Karoran, Nada, Parch, Sunk, Majrian, Choti Nagal, Bari Nagal, Parol, Siswan, Pallanpur, Saini Majra, Dulwan, Burana, Gochar, Mirzapur, Tarapur, and Sultanpur—now face a strict regulatory standstill until the mandated demarcation exercise is concluded.
Legal Implications
By barring further mutation entries in revenue records, the Court has essentially put a padlock on real estate transactions in the area. This is a critical legal maneuver intended to prevent the potential manipulation of revenue entries—a concern the court addressed directly by noting its "serious doubts" regarding the credibility of existing records that have, in some instances, incorrectly reclassified forest land as private property.
As the state government prepares to file its compliance report, the case highlights an ongoing friction between rapid urbanization in the Chandigarh periphery and the enforcement of environmental conservation laws. The committee is expected to present its findings on the demarcation of forest boundaries within the six-week deadline set by the Court.
Discription: CHANDIGARH — The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered an immediate stay on all construction, development, and land transfers across 16 villages in Mohali near Chandigarh over environmental concerns.
A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor issued the order in Sukhraj Singh Chahal v. State of Punjab. The Court expressed serious concerns over the rapid commercialization of the ecologically fragile Shivalik foothills and noted that forest land demarcation directed by the Supreme Court in 2014 remains incomplete.
To prevent record manipulation, the Court barred further revenue record mutations and directed Punjab’s Chief Secretary to form a committee within six weeks to audit revenue records and demarcate forest boundaries as they existed under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.