Continuing Mandamus
The Supreme Court's Supervisory Mechanism
"Continuing mandamus" refers to the Supreme Court retaining seisin over an environmental matter and issuing successive, monitoring directions over years — rather than delivering one final order and closing the case. It is the same supervisory technique used in the Godavarman forest-protection litigation and in Ganga-pollution cases such as M.C. Mehta v. Union of India.
- The mechanism derives from the Supreme Court's writ jurisdiction under Article 32 (enforcement of fundamental rights, including the right to a healthy environment read into Article 21) combined with its power to pass orders for "complete justice" under Article 142.
- Expert committees like the Aravalli HPC are typically court-appointed (not executive-appointed), report periodically to the Court, and can be dissolved and reconstituted by the Court itself if they fail to perform — as threatened in this case.
- This differs from a one-time writ of mandamus, which compels a specific act and then concludes the proceeding.
● Tracked since February 03, 2026 · last seen September 07, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes
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