Pleas against land acquisition for mining in Chhattisgarh dismissed by Supreme Court.

The Chhattisgarh high court has dismissed five pleas challenging the land acquisition for the Parsa Coal Block, which is owned by the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd. On Wednesday, a division bench of chief judge Arup Kumar Goswami and justice Rajendra Chauhan Singh Samant said, ‘We are of the opinion that apart from gross delay in approaching the court, there is no merit in these petitions. The petitions deserve to be dismissed…’

The petitioners’ lawyer, Sudeip Shrivastava, said they will appeal to the Supreme Court. ‘After reading the order, we will decide our next step…we will surely file an appeal…’ The court stated that anyone may have objected to the acquisition within 30 days and that there is no reasonable explanation for the delay. On April 6, the Chhattisgarh government gave final sanction for the mining project on 841.538 hectares of forest land.

The court stated that the petitions addressed matters raised before the National Green Tribunal. ‘..will confine our deliberations to the validity of the land acquisition process.’