PIL filed in Uttarakhand High Court against full court decision to shift HC to Haldwani

A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Uttarakhand High Court challenging its full court resolution identifying 40 hectares of allegedly reserved forest land to shift the High Court from Nainital to a site in Haldwani.

The petition has been filed by Advocate Raman Kumar Shah and is likely to be listed before the Court next week.

Shah has challenged the district magistrate's (DM) order dated May 14, 2026 proposing three sites for the Court's relocation and the consequent full court resolution of June 19, 2026 which identified 40 hectares of reserve forest land in the Tarai-East Forest Division as the preferred site.

It is Shah's case that the land identified is reserved forest and an elephant corridor. He contends that the DM's order and the full court resolution violate the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, the Forest Conservation Rules, 2023 and the Government of India Consolidated Guidelines and Clarifications dated December 29, 2023.

The PIL states that no permission/clearance has been sought from the Central government for de-reservation or diversion of this land and, therefore, the DM was not within his jurisdiction to propose this land for the High Court building.

"Resultantly, on the basis of such Report, the Resolution of the Full Court dated 19.06.2026 is also is also in violation of the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and the Forest Conservation Rules, 2023; and Government of India Consolidated Guidelines & Clarifications dated 29.12.2023," the plea states.

The plea also questions the rationale for moving the Court out of Nainital altogether. Shah states that the decision runs counter to the motive behind the creation of the State of Uttarakhand.

He adds that there are no infrastructural problems in the High Court at Nainital and even if there are some constraints, they exist in the entire State.

"The object and purpose o f the State reorganization was the development of hills by removing infrastructural problems in the hills which cannot b e solved by relocating the Institutions of importance i n the non-hilly areas hence, the reason cited by the Hon'ble High Court of Uttarakhand (Administrative Side), are wrong and without any empirical basis," the plea states.

The petition has been filed through Advocates MC Pant and Kaushal Sah Jagati.