The Punjab and Haryana High Court has begun a crucial examination of the National Green Tribunal's legal authority to invalidate Punjab's controversial 'Green Habitat' farmhouse policy. This judicial scrutiny comes even as the NGT itself has already put a temporary hold on the policy's implementation until early 2026.
Core Legal Conflict: Can NGT Strike Down a Policy?
The hearing, which took place on Monday before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry, centers on a fundamental question of jurisdiction. The court is probing whether the NGT, a specialized statutory body created by the National Green Tribunal Act of 2010, possesses the power to declare a state government's policy unconstitutional or ultra vires.
Senior Advocate R S Bains, representing the petitioners, argued forcefully that the NGT's mandate is restricted. He stated that the tribunal can only grant relief for environmental damage—such as ordering compensation or restitution—after harm has been demonstrated. "The NGT cannot, at the inception, declare a policy unconstitutional or ultra vires Article 21," Bains submitted, emphasizing that challenging the validity of a policy falls squarely within the writ jurisdiction of the high court.
Petitioners' Grave Environmental Warnings
The petition challenges a Punjab government notification issued on November 20, 2025, which aims to regulate and regularize residential constructions on approximately 55,000 hectares of delisted Shivalik-Kandi land. The petitioners have assailed the policy as a severe threat to the environment.
Bains highlighted Punjab's alarmingly low forest cover, which official data places at a mere three to four per cent of its geographical area. He warned that in such an ecologically fragile state, allowing the policy to operate even for a single day could cause irreversible damage. The counsel contended that the policy's true intent is to regularize existing illegal constructions and permit concrete farmhouses and access paths on land that was denotified strictly for agriculture and livelihood purposes.
"By the time the tribunal reaches final relief, the damage would already be done," Bains argued, stressing the need for preventive judicial action.
State's Defense and Procedural Posture
Representing the Punjab government, Deputy Advocate-General Salil Sabhlok informed the court that the same notification is already under challenge before the NGT's principal bench in New Delhi. The tribunal, on December 18, granted an interim stay on the policy's operation until February 4, 2026. On this ground, the state urged the high court to decline interference to avoid parallel proceedings.
The bench, after hearing extensive arguments from both sides, indicated that it would first decide the question of maintainability. The matter is likely to be considered again in January 2026. Meanwhile, the NGT is scheduled to hear the case on February 4, 2026.
The 'Green Habitat' policy is officially framed as an effort to regulate low-impact residential development. However, environmental critics allege it paves the way for large-scale regularization of farmhouses near sensitive forest areas, potentially undermining the environmental safeguards that were a condition for the land's original denotification by the Union Government.
