HC dismisses pleas against land acquisition for mining in Chhattisgarh

RAIPUR : The Chhattisgarh high court has dismissed five pleas challenging land acquisition for the Parsa Coal Block allocated to electricity generation company Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd.

“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…” a division bench of chief justice Arup Kumar Goswami and justice Rajendra Chauhan Singh Samant said on Wednesday.

Lawyer Sudeip Shrivastava, who represented the petitioners, said they will move the Supreme Court. “After reading the order, we will decide our next step…we will surely file an appeal…”

The court said anyone could have objected within 30 days to the acquisition and that there is no acceptable explanation for the delay in approaching it.

The Chhattisgarh government granted the final approval for 841.538 hectares of forest land for the mining project on April 6.

The court said issues raised before the National Green Tribunal have also been touched upon in the petitions. “..will confine our deliberations to the validity of the land acquisition process.”