THE SUPREME COURT TODAY said it will appoint an amicus curiae to assist in the suo motu proceedings over ecological imbalance in Himachal Pradesh.
A Division Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta posted the matter for hearing after four weeks, noting that the state government had filed a report on August 23.
The case stems from an order passed on July 28 by a Division Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, which had observed that Himachal Pradesh might “vanish in thin air” if urgent corrective steps were not taken.
That Bench’s observation over the alarming environmental conditions in the hill state had come in the course of hearing a plea against a Himachal Pradesh High Court order refusing to interfere with a June 2025 state notification declaring certain areas as “green zones.”
While declining to interfere with the High Court’s order, the Supreme Court said the state’s decision appeared aimed at curbing unregulated construction, but stressed that the situation had already deteriorated due to the visible and alarming impact of climate change.
