The Congress on Saturday (October 18, 2025) criticised the Chhattisgarh High Court’s decision to set aside forest rights granted to a village community, calling it a “dangerous” blow to the very foundation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.
In a post on X, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said, “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.”
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He said one of the “extraordinary reasons” cited in the ruling was that since the land had earlier been diverted for mining and no legal challenge was made then, no claim for forest rights now survives. “There is no mystery of who the beneficiary is,” Mr. Ramesh said, adding, “Modani hai to mumkin hai,” using the Opposition’s oft-used term to alleg proximity between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Gautam Adani in controlling national resources.
