By Express News Service
RAIPUR: In a significant decision, the Chhattisgarh high court has dismissed five petitions that challenged land acquisition for the Parsa coal block allocated to the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (RRVUNL) at Hasdeo Arand forest zone in Sarguja district, about 330 km north of Raipur.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami and Justice RCS Samant in their order stated, “We are of the opinion that apart from the gross delay in approaching the high court, there being no merit in these petitions, they deserve to be dismissed.”
The petitions were filed against the move to acquire land for Part coal block in accordance with the Coal Bearing Act. The petitioners had contended that private companies, according to the provisions of the Act, cannot engage or carry out the mining operations on land acquired but the RRVUNL has under a contract given the work to a private company for the mining operations.
The court further cited that any person could have objected within the 30 days of the issue of the gazette notification in the given case, which was published on 27 December 2017. “The competent authority computed 30 days from the date of publication of the gazette notification in two newspapers on 16 January 2018 and accordingly the last date for lodging an objection was 15 February 2018. There is no acceptable explanation for the delay in approaching the court”.
Sudeip Shrivastava, counsel for the petitioners, said that they will move the Supreme Court. “Apparently, the judgement seems to have inadvertently missed some crucial facts relevant to the challenge. We are going to the apex court and hope to get justice,” he said.
Lawyers for the Chhattisgarh government and the Centre argued in support of the land acquisition asserting that the “due process” has been followed and any stay might further aggravate the power crisis situation in Rajasthan.
Parsa East-Kente Basan coal block in north Chhattisgarh was awarded to RRVUNL. The Adani Group has entered into an agreement as Mine Developer-cum-Operator (MDO) under a contract.
