Uttarakhand High Court dismisses as premature the challenge to its shift from Nainital to Haldwani
2 October 2026
A division bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari and Justice Pankaj Purohit of the Uttarakhand High Court dismissed, in September 2026, a writ petition challenging the identification of land for shifting the High Court from Nainital to Haldwani.
The petition attacked the District Magistrate's order identifying the land and a Full Court resolution on the proposed shift.
About 73 hectares of forest land in the Tarai-Central Forest Division near the Bel Baba temple at Rudrapur has been identified for the new complex.
The bench held that prior approval of the Central Government under Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 is not required as of now, and would be needed when the stage of de-reservation of forest or use of forest land for non-forest purpose arises.
On the objection that the site falls in an elephant corridor, the court noted that the proposed site is about 10 kilometres away from identified corridors.
The bench also noted Nainital's infrastructure limitations and the high cost of living there for litigants.
In plain words
Division bench A bench of two judges — Writ petitions of this kind are heard by two judges sitting together rather than a single judge.
De-reservation Removal of the reserved-forest status of land — Until land loses its forest status, it cannot legally be built on for a non-forest purpose.