New Delhi : A right never lawfully claimed, legally cannot be said to have been taken away, the Chhattisgarh High Court observed earlier this month, as it dismissed a decade-old petition filed by Ghatbarra villagers against coal mining in the Hasdeo forest region.

Holding that the villagers’ Community Forest Rights (CFR) were never legally claimed or, even, recognised under the procedures prescribed in the Forest Rights Act, the HC upheld a 2016 CFR revocation order. Effectively, its order sustained mining clearances for the Parsa East and Kete Basen (PEKB) coal block, now owned by the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (RRVUNL).

Justice Rakesh Mohan Pandey made this observation while hearing a petition filed by the Hasdeo Arand Bachao Sangharsh Samiti and several villagers challe

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