Chhattisgarh HC upholds cancellation of community forest rights in area where Adani runs coal mines

The Chhattisgarh High Court has dismissed a petition questioning the cancellation of community forest rights granted to the residents of a village in the Hasdeo Arand area, where a subsidiary of the Adani Group operates two coal mines.

The High Court order, passed on October 8, pertained to the village of Ghatbarra in the Surguja district, where Adani Mining operates the Parsa East and Kete Basen coal mines. The block is owned by the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited, a power generation utility wholly owned by the Rajasthan government.

Justice Rakesh Mohan Pandey said that an order from 2013 granting three community forest rights titles to the villagers of Ghatbarra was erroneous, since the land had already been diverted for mining in 2012. The order from 2013 was passed by a district-level committee under the Forest Rights Act.

The Forest Rights Act is a law that gives tribal and forest-dwelling communities legal rights over the forests and lands they have lived in and used for generations.

The judge said on October 8 that the “mistake” was “rectified” through the cancellation of community forest rights, and that due to this, the order granting the rights was void ab initio, or legally invalid from the outset.

The petition before the High Court was...

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