Court rules against community forest rights in Ghatbarra due to prior land diversion for mining.
The Chhattisgarh High Court has dismissed a petition that challenged the cancellation of community forest rights granted to residents of Ghatbarra village, located in the Hasdeo Arand area. This region is notable for housing two coal mines operated by a subsidiary of the Adani Group. The court’s decision, issued on October 8, specifically addressed the circumstances surrounding the forest rights in question.
Justice Rakesh Mohan Pandey noted that the community forest rights titles, which were granted to the villagers in 2013, were issued in error. The basis for this determination lies in the fact that the land had already been diverted for mining activities back in 2012, prior to the rights being conferred. The initial order that granted these rights was made by a district-level committee under the Forest Rights Act, a legal framework designed to provide tribal and forest-dwelling communities with rights over the lands and forests they have traditionally utilized.
During the proceedings, Justice Pandey remarked that the earlier decision to grant community forest rights was a mistake that needed rectification. As a result, the cancellation of these rights rendered the 2013 order void ab initio, meaning it was legally invalid from the outset. This determination has significant implications for the residents of Ghatbarra, particularly as the area continues to be developed for coal mining.
The petition against the cancellation was initially filed by the Forest Rights Committee of Ghatbarra, which was established under the provisions of the Forest Rights Act. Subsequently, the civil society organization Hasdeo Arand Bachao Sangharsh Samiti joined the legal challenge, alongside several individuals claiming to be residents of the village. However, the Forest Rights Committee later withdrew its petition, leading the Hasdeo Arand Bachao Sangharsh Samiti to continue contesting the case on behalf of the villagers.
The petitioners argued that district-level committees lack the authority to revisit their earlier decisions and claimed that the villagers had not been afforded the opportunity to present their case prior to the cancellation of their community forest rights. Despite these assertions, the High Court pointed out that the petitioners had failed to contest previous orders from 2011, 2012, and 2015 that permitted coal mining and forest diversions in the area. Furthermore, the court noted that the petitioners did not disclose their separate legal challenges concerning land acquisition in 2022, which had already been dismissed.
In its ruling, the court acknowledged that the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited had successfully completed the first phase of mining over the past decade and had also received the necessary approvals to commence the second phase of operations in 2022. The judge indicated that claims made by Ghatbarra residents regarding their community forest rights could be addressed through monetary compensation, given the passage of time since the mining activities began.
Significantly, the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited had been granted in-principle approval by the Union environment ministry in 2011, with forest diversion for both phases of mining being authorized in 2012. Although the Supreme Court had annulled over 200 coal block allocations in 2014, including the Parsa Coal Block in Hasdeo Arand, the Centre subsequently enacted the Coal Mines Special Provisions Act in 2015, which allowed for the reallocation of the coal block to the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited.
