Rejecting a six-month extension sought by the high-powered committee (HPC) working on the definition and measures for protection of the Aravalli hills, the Supreme Court on Monday set a November 30 deadline for the panel to submit its final report.Making it clear that no further extension would be granted, a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana warned the HPC that in case the deadline was not met, it would reconstitute the committee.“Let the panel work day and night to submit a report on the Aravalli issue. If they are unable to do that in two months, we will reconstitute the whole panel,” the CJI said.“The committee has basically asked for an adjournment till my retirement… If they are not capable, we will re-constitute it,” remarked CJI Kant, who will demit office on February 9, 2027.The Bench posted the suo motu case initiated by it on the definition and demarcation of the Aravalli range for further hearing on December 2.The top court-appointed HPC had asked the top court to extend the deadline for submission of its final report by six months, saying it needed more time for a “comprehensive and defensible” assessment of the Aravalli range.The top court had, in November 2025, approved an elevation-linked definition for classifying landforms as part of the Aravalli range — spanning across Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat — for the purpose of mining regulation.However, following a public outrage over the definition of Aravalli hills approved by a Bench led by then CJI BR Gavai in its November 20, 2025, judgment that was based on a committee’s recommendations, a Bench led by CJI Kant took suo motu cognisance of the issue on December 29, 2025, and stayed the controversial decision of his predecessor-led Bench.Taking note of “a significant outcry among environmentalists” about ecological degradation due to unregulated mining in the Aravalli hills, the top court had said that there was a need to resolve “critical ambiguities”, including whether the criteria of 100-metre elevation and the 500-metre gap between hills would strip a significant portion of the range of environmental protection.