30 October 2026
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that taking back an allotted plot must be the last resort when an allottee defaults on instalments, and has set out a formula for working out what an allottee must pay to have a resumption order set aside. The Court was dealing with a plot in Sirsa resumed by the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) for non-payment of instalments. It said the aim is to balance equities: the authority must be put back in the position it would have been in had the money come on time, while the allottee does not lose the plot altogether for a default that can still be made good. The judgment reads the power to resume as a drastic power to be used sparingly, and faults the authority for never having considered whether resumption was really the last resort. The ruling matters across Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, where urban development authorities allot residential and commercial plots on instalments.
Court:
Punjab and Haryana High Court
Principle:
Resumption of a plot is a last resort
Authority:
Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP)
Why it matters for exams: The principle that resumption is a last resort, and that a court can lay down a formula to balance equities on instalment default, is the durable point of law.
Kerala PSCUPSC
3 November 2026
The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has issued show-cause notices to the Deputy Commissioners and Senior Superintendents of Police of Gurdaspur and Kapurthala districts in Punjab over a rise in paddy stubble burning. The officials must reply by November 6, explaining the increase and the steps they took. The notices came as Delhi's AQI touched 350, its worst reading in 287 days. Between September 15 and November 2, Punjab recorded 1,612 of the 3,535 stubble-burning incidents across six states, the highest of any state. The commission also flagged a sharp rise in Tarn Taran. This season's farm fires are tracked by satellite by the CREAMS laboratory of the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute. The Centre's Crop Residue Management scheme subsidises machines such as Happy Seeders, balers and mulchers.
Districts served notices:
Gurdaspur and Kapurthala
Reply deadline:
November 6
Punjab incidents (Sept 15 - Nov 2):
1,612
Incidents across six states:
3,535
Delhi AQI:
350
Why it matters for exams: CAQM, the statutory air-quality body for Delhi-NCR and adjoining states, and the stubble-burning problem in Punjab are standard environment questions.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
CAQM Commission for Air Quality Management — The statutory body that manages air quality in the National Capital Region and adjoining areas.
SSP Senior Superintendent of Police — The officer who heads the police of a district.
AQI Air Quality Index — A single number that sums up how polluted the air is; above 400 is 'severe'.
CREAMS Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space — An ICAR-IARI laboratory that tracks crop-residue fires by satellite.
27 October 2026
On the last day of its session, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha passed a resolution asking the Union government to reopen the Sri Kartarpur Sahib Corridor. The corridor lets Sikh pilgrims travel without a visa to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, one of Sikhism's holiest shrines. It has stayed shut since May 7, 2025, when India hit terror sites in Pakistan and PoK in Operation Sindoor, which followed the Pahalgam attack. The resolution, moved by Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains, also asks the Centre to simplify visit procedures and to talk to Pakistan so that devotees can travel safely. The corridor links Gurdwara Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab's Gurdaspur district with the Kartarpur shrine. It was opened in November 2019 to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.
Indian end:
Dera Baba Nanak
District:
Gurdaspur
Pakistan end:
Gurdwara Darbar Sahib
Opened:
November 2019
Occasion:
550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak
Closed since:
May 7, 2025
Why it matters for exams: The Kartarpur Corridor (Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, opened for Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary) is a frequent India-Pakistan and culture question.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSCBank
In plain words
Vidhan Sabha Legislative Assembly — The elected house of a state legislature.
Kartarpur Corridor Sri Kartarpur Sahib Corridor — A visa-free route from Dera Baba Nanak in India to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan.
Operation Sindoor Operation Sindoor — India's strikes on terror targets in Pakistan and PoK after the Pahalgam attack of April 22, 2025.
Sangat Sangat — The Sikh word for the congregation of devotees.
Background
Punjab as it stands today was made by the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, listed as ACT NO. 31 OF 1966. The Act was passed after the Lok Sabha was told in March 1966 that the Government had accepted in principle the reorganisation of the then State of Punjab on a linguistic basis. It did four things at once: it kept a State of Punjab, formed the new State of Haryana, created a new Union territory named Chandigarh, and transferred hill areas to what was then the Union Territory of Himachal Pradesh. The Act fixes the appointed day as the 1st day of November, 1966, and defines the population ratio between Haryana, Punjab and the Union as 37.88 to 54.84 to 7.78 for dividing what had been shared. The Tribune notes that this is why Punjab Divas falls on November 1, and that the reorganisation followed the report of the Punjab Boundary Commission headed by Justice JC Shah. It also records that the planned city of Chandigarh was made a Union territory to serve as capital for both the new States. The name Punjab itself is built from the Persian panj and aab: the country of five rivers, which the paper lists as Beas, Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi and Sutlej.
Act number:
ACT NO. 31 OF 1966
Appointed day:
1st day of November, 1966
Population ratio set:
37.88 to 54.84 to 7.78
Why it matters for exams: The formation date, the States and the Union territory created by this Act are asked in every Punjab and polity question set.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Appointed day Appointed day — The date an Act fixes for a reorganisation to take effect.
Union territory Union territory — A part of India administered by the Union rather than by a State government.
Background
Punjab's biggest water and power works are not run by the State alone. Section 79 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act required the Central Government to constitute a Board, called the Bhakra Management Board, to administer, maintain and operate them. The list in that section is specific: the Bhakra Dam and Reservoir, the Nangal Dam and the Nangal-Hydel Channel up to Kotla Power House, the irrigation headworks at Rupar, Harike and Ferozepur, the Bhakra power houses, those at Ganguwal and Kotla, and a set of sub-stations and transmission lines reaching Ambala, Panipat, Delhi, Ludhiana, Sangrur and Hissar. The Board's duty is to regulate the supply of water from the Bhakra-Nangal Project to Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, and to regulate the power the houses generate. Its composition is laid down too: a whole-time Chairman and two whole-time members appointed by the Central Government, one representative each of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, and two representatives of the Centre. An amendment to the Act in 1976 brought the Beas project under the same system and renamed the body the Bhakra Beas Management Board, which has four partner States today: Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.
Provision:
Section 79, Punjab Reorganisation Act
Water regulated for:
Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan
Headworks run:
Rupar, Harike, Ferozepur
Why it matters for exams: River water sharing in the north and the body that controls Bhakra are asked together in geography and polity papers.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Headworks Irrigation headworks — The structures at a river from which canals take their water.
BBMB Bhakra Beas Management Board — The present name of the Board that runs the Bhakra and Beas works.
Background
Patiala is one of the famous princely states of erstwhile Punjab, and the district still carries that name. It forms the south-eastern part of the State. The district administration places it between 29 degrees 49 minutes and 30 degrees 47 minutes north latitude, and between 75 degrees 58 minutes and 76 degrees 54 minutes east longitude. To its north lie the districts of Fatehgarh Sahib, Rupnagar and Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, together with the Union Territory of Chandigarh. That northern boundary is worth noticing, because it puts the district next door to Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana. A princely state that became a district and now touches a Union territory is the pairing to remember.
Position in the State:
south-eastern part of Punjab
Latitude:
29 49 to 30 47 north
Union territory to the north:
Chandigarh
Why it matters for exams: Districts that were princely states, and districts bordering a Union territory, are asked in state geography sections.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Princely state Princely state — A state ruled by its own prince under British suzerainty before 1947.
Background
The district's own account traces Ludhiana city to the time of the Lodhi dynasty, whose rule from Delhi it dates 1451-1526 A.D. The district records that Sikandar Lodhi, who ruled from 1489-1517 A.D., sent two Lodhi chiefs, Yusaf Khan and Nihand Khan, to restore order in this region. The two camped at the site of the present city, and the settlement that grew there kept the dynasty's name. Ludhiana is today a district of Punjab. Its name therefore carries a piece of Delhi Sultanate history into a modern Punjabi city. The chain to remember is simple: Lodhi dynasty, Sikandar Lodhi, two chiefs sent to this region, and a city that took the dynasty's name.
Founded in the time of:
the Lodhi dynasty
Lodhi rule from Delhi:
1451-1526 A.D.
Chiefs deputed:
Yusaf Khan and Nihand Khan
Why it matters for exams: The Lodhi dynasty and the origin of Punjab's big cities are asked in both history and state geography sections.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Lodhi dynasty Lodhi dynasty — The last dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, ruling before the Mughals.
Background
Tarn Taran is a district of Punjab whose history is older than the district itself. Its own account carries the place back to the days of Shri Guru Arjan Dev ji, fifth in the line of the Sikh Gurus, who lived from 1563 to 1606. In 1596 he laid the city's foundation, and the step the district treats as its milestone was the setting up of the Shri Tarn Taran Sahib Temple for the welfare of the people. The town therefore grew around a place of worship rather than around a fort or a market, which is why the shrine and the settlement share one name. For an aspirant the useful pairing is the Guru and the year: the fifth Guru, and the founding of the city in his lifetime.
Founded by:
the fifth Sikh Guru, Shri Guru Arjan Dev ji
Year of foundation:
1596
Shrine established:
Shri Tarn Taran Sahib Temple
Why it matters for exams: The order of the Sikh Gurus and the towns they founded are asked in history and state geography alike.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Tarn Taran Sahib Shri Tarn Taran Sahib Temple — The shrine at Tarn Taran whose establishment marks the founding of the town.
Background
Punjab now has its own law on tree felling, so the definition it works on is worth knowing. The Punjab Protection of Trees Act, 2026 - Punjab Act No. 13 of 2026, assented to on 2 September 2026 and published in the Punjab Government Gazette on 24 September 2026 - regulates the felling of trees in urban areas through a permit requirement, with penalties for cutting without one. The Act works on a measurement: a woody plant whose branches spring from and are supported upon a trunk counts as a tree only if the trunk has a girth of at least 35 centimetres at ground level. Anything of smaller girth, which covers saplings and young trees, falls outside the Act and can be felled without a permit under it. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has described the Act as draconian, and the State has said it will not implement it for the time being.
Law:
Punjab Protection of Trees Act, 2026 (Punjab Act No. 13 of 2026)
Definition of a tree:
Trunk girth of at least 35 cm at ground level
Area covered:
Urban areas
Gazette publication:
24 September 2026
Why it matters for exams: The 35 cm girth definition of a tree under the Punjab Protection of Trees Act and the public trust doctrine are the lasting facts.
UPSCSSC