Chhattisgarh HC's ruling on villagers' rights on forests undermines FRA: Congress

The Congress on Saturday termed the Chhattisgarh High Court order that set aside forest rights granted to a village community as ''dangerous'' to the foundation of the Forest Rights Act.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh labelled the single-judge bench ruling as unacceptable.

''In the latest of a series of unacceptable and unprecedented events that have occurred in Hasdeo Aranya in the two years since the Modani Government has come to power in the state, a single-judge Bench of the Chhattisgarh High Court has set aside forest rights granted to a village community under the Forest Rights Act, 2006,'' he wrote.

Ramesh said one of the ''extraordinary reasons'' offered was that since the land was previously diverted for mining and no challenge was made then, no claim for forest rights survives.

''There is no mystery of who the beneficiary is,'' he said, adding, ''Modani hai to mumkin hai.'' 'Modani' is a pejorative suitcase phrase that the opposition parties often resort to imply a Narendra Modi-Gautam Adani collusion in dividing up national resources.

The former environment minister said the judgment also argues that the FRA does not interfere with the rights of the state over mines or minerals lying underneath forest land.

''This is a strange perversion of logic and justice: the FRA guarantees villagers access to forest produce, which cannot be sustained in the absence of rights to the land itself. The Court has now made this right conditional on Government policy,'' he said.

''This is a dangerous verdict that undermines the entire foundation of the FRA,'' Ramesh said, sharing the link to the full verdict of the court.